I better do this right.  This is an interlude, before I get to storyforming the real story.  I have problems with Illustrating the Impact Character for the first story. No, it doesn't mean that I'm actually doing her art up, it just means that I don't have her role correct.  I know she will challenge my main character's prejudice against Shamanism and the other traditions.  I just don't have her background right yet.

So, we are interluding . . .:)

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I made it from the hospital to the safe house that Mike set aside for us, in crutches.  Mike, my childhood friend since Elementary School, is helping me into our apartment.  He's a true friend, I'll have to say that.  He's also quite the charmer, he can charm the birds from the trees with his honey tongue.  Most of the time, best friends break up friendships over time as a man changes through life, but Mike stuck by me thick through thin.  After I read love from his being, I wasn't surprised with why he stuck with me.  Some friendships are meant to last a long time.

Also helping me was Franz.  The fearsome humanoid dinosaur from Düsseldorf.  Before you accuse me of scanning his thoughts and probing his inner mind, I didn't.  If we are going to be friends, I better not push it by probing for his inner demons, if you want me to be poetic.  One thing I'll say about the "lizard man," he looks like a Dienonychus.  He had the muzzle, head, and lower raptor legs -- but instead of being cyber they were as real as they came.  The energy from Franz was all the same, not different like a chromed human being would have.  Plus, he had his muscular, thick tail that helped with his balance.  Franz was dressed in a coat and his fundoshi.  The dino-man reveled in his fearsome appearance, which I can tell he laughs at himself for suffering SURGE.

I can't speak a word of German.  I have to communicate with him through either augmented reality, or through direct telepathic communication.  But the silence was so unbearable that Mike broke the silence.

"Ashdautas vrasubatlat, Robby," said Mike as he helped me to do the door.  Someday, I will kill you -- Mike said this in Or'zet.  I still don't understand why he insists on having me learn the lingo when I don't have the tusks for the sound to resonate.

"Nar udantas, Michael," I replied back.  True to form, i can't pronounce it as well as he could.  My reply -- not today. 

Mike laughed, knowing that I don't have the resonating tusks.  He lets me speak Or'zet anyhow.  "It's good to be home, my good friend."

"This is where we are living?" I asked.  "You got us a house in Park City?  Among the affluent and wealthy here?"

"Best place to hide right now," said Mike.  "This is one the low cost houses I bought.  Living the life as a Police Face certainly has given me some advantages."

I looked at the home.  It was . . . HUGE!  Bigger than the home I grew up with, and even though I live in a upscale apartment in the Salt Lake sprawl, this sleepy hamlet has room for houses like this.  It was wider than I thought, I estimated it to be about fifty thousand square feet.  Well, maybe I was off.

"But a mansion, Mike," I said.

He shook his head.  "Not a mansion, but room for you, Silvara, Franz, and I," he replied. "This is just a small house in an out of the way sleepy town."  I hobbled along, and Mike opened the door with his electronic key.  The door was opened and I stepped into the lobby, and then into the hall, where Silvara was waiting for me.  She was wearing nothing but those tight shorts that seemed to have a 5 inch inseam; and a shirt with a high enough midriff to bear the bottom of those furred breasts of hers. 

"Willkommen zu hause, meister. Es ist eine ziemliche Überraschung, nicht wahr?" Franz asked in German.

Silvara wagged her tail when she saw me coming in.  "Welcome home, Master!" she said. "What would this girl do for you?"

Franz's big toe claws clicked against the carpet.  But he was careful not to let them snag.  When we closed the door, he took off the coat and put it in the cloak room and walked about with just the fundoshi underwear.  Good thing he still has manners.  I didn't notice how strong he is, but then, he must have worked out a lot.  I turned my attention to Silvara.

"Nothing right now, thank you," I said.

She gave a pouty face.  "Please, there must be something this girl can do for you?" she asked.

I thought of something as I sat down in a chair.  My shoulder ached, all over and I was in a sling.  The crutches were Mike's idea.  I replied, "You can get me some ice."

"Oh, at once, Master!" and the husky girl sprang to life.  She went to the freezer and got an ice bag.  She came over and put it on my sore shoulder, and her breasts fell out in front of my eyes so naturally.  

"Franz, I can't speak german but, whoa -- HELLO!" I said in reaction to the breasts falling out.  The ice felt very, very cold and numbed the ache.  Wait a sec, wasn't it heat for aching mucles?

I sat there and cursed myself -- why me?  I asked.  Why did I have to buy a girl and she actually liked what she was doing?  It makes me shudder to think of all the pain and suffering she went through in training. I said in reaction to the breasts falling out.

"Oh, sorry, Master," she said.  "I'm only dressed to please you."

"Just take the shirt off," I said.

She laughed and discarded the really short shirt, going topless.  "Thank you, Master!"

Yep, those nice ample breasts were free.  And she felt free.  She had the white fur cover her breasts except for where the areolas and nipples were exposed.  She walked with a sexy kind of natural gait.  And I wondered, am I cursed or blessed, or both?  I noticed the distinctive red "k" on her thigh as she stripped off the shirt.  A tattoo?  Or is it just a coloring of the fur?  What did this girl go through in her training, anyhow?

"You think I could get a collar, Master?" she asked.  Well, she was a dog -- wait, she's a human being. 

"No," I said.  "Actually, I don't know."

She said, "I just want everyone to know that this girl is owned to the best Master in the whole world!"

She sauntered back into the kitchen.  "Is she going to be like this everyday?" I asked.

Mike said, "Yep."

I looked up at Franz.  "I know you can speak English, Franz.  You can trust us here."

Franz then started to speak English with a thick accent.  "I'm sorry," he said.  "My English isn't at all gut."  He pronounced gut that time as gute.

"I don't speak English here in the  . . . New World . . . because I feel . . . that I am no good at it," he continued to explain.  "Besides . . . Deutsch adds to my . . . scariness . . . here."

"You can trust us not to laugh at you," said Michael.  "You can speak English here."

"Do you . . . mind . . . if I take off . . . my under-wear?" asked Franz.  "It's . . . bothering me . . . a little."

I looked at Mike, and then he both said, "No."

"Das ist gut."

Franz sat down on the couch and pulled off his Fundoshi, and soon he was all there.  The full monte.  He stood up and walked up stairs to put his fundoshi where his room was located, his strong muscular tail also waving through the air.  I sensed a slight surprise, and then a rise in temperature in Mike.  Given Mike's sexual orientation, I wouldn't find it a bit surprising.  I put the crutches away and massaged my shoulder.  Tomorrow, I should be fine.  I caught a little of the thoughts that Franz was broadcasting.

"Don't think of it, Mike," I said.  "In his heart, he's still a married man."

"I didn't know that," said Mike.

I replied, "Just do yourself a favor, okay?  He thinks strongly of his wife.  Don't tempt this man."

"Robby, I stopped hoping for a strong relationship a long time ago," he deeply said.  "You were right, relationships among my kind don't often last forever."

"I am just glad you aren't dead," I said.

"Well, to get on another subject, how about some news via the Matrix?"

I shook my head no.  I still will not check the news reports on the Matrix.  "I just want to find out where I sleep."

Mike grinned as he leaned on my chair.  Yes, this was my chair, although I didn't have time to tell you everything on how we furnished our old apartment.  "You've got the best room in the house, Robby boy," those tusks and his smiles -- you can't help it -- orks and trolls always smiled grotesquely. 

"What?" I asked. 

"You have the Master bedroom!"

I was surprised.  Usually, Mike always charmed his way in getting the best bedrooms.  Plus, I didn't need much.  Just a room big enough to attune my library to the Universe.  I usually did the whole appartment.  But this?  This was too much.  I get the Master Bedroom this time, and I looked at Silvara, who was wagging her tail while dressed in just those cargo short shorts.  Suddenly my second question was answered.  I had the sickening feeling that I'm not sleeping alone.

~ ? ~

I woke up with Silvara over the sheets, hugging me. And of course, my shoulder was sore.  I also had the strangest dream, though.  I dreamed that I had a harem like you see in those old 2D movies of the fabled Middle East.   Now, being a Mormon, I see nothing wrong with a harem.  However, it was filled with many girls of the human persuasion, all dressed in harem costumes like you see Jeanie wear in I dream of Jeanie.  I was wearing a traditional Persian outfit.  

They were all swarming me and touching me and piling exotic furs on me.  I felt covered in fur, and then, I woke up -- covered in dog fur.  Don't get me wrong, Silvara's a dog but not that kind of dog.  She is actually very nice and very amicable.  However, I'm not formally married to her and even though I do "own" her -- the thought leaves a bad taste in my mouth -- i quickly got out of bed quietly and let her sleep.  I put on a robe, so as to not let temptation get to me.

I looked around the Master Bedroom.  I have my beautiful bed, a futon.  But the room was painted white.  I actually had two potted trees, star pines, in the room.  I checked the closet, yes they are walk in closets.  But where is my library?  I walked out of my room and down the stairs.  I opened a door and I saw Franz working with some excercise equipment.

The naked dinosaur looked like he was doing bench presses.  He looked at me, and I waved, and he started doing bench presses again.  I walked through the halls and opened a door and . . . I found it.

The study had all of my books on shelves arranged neatly.  Unlike a Hermetic library, a psion's library has a lot of physics books.  Books on Quantum Physics, Relativity -- which isn't vogue in the Twenty-first Century; Plasma space physics -- which is vogue; and we also have books from Abraham Hicks, John Asaraf, and Doctor Robert Anthony.  I also had copies of the Secret and Down the Rabbit Hole. I had a few of the books I written on how we can manipulate our reality with our thoughts.

This is the Psion's library and psionic lodge.  The books are about self powerment and physics.  Everything was here, even all of my materials.  All it took was attuning the room to the paths of the Universe.

"How do you like it?" asked Mike in Or'zet, who was standing behind me.

"Impressive," I said in awe and in English.  "You moved everything here?"

"I had too," he said, also in Or'zet.  "I had to leave no trace while you were in the hospital, recovering.  Our Japanese Friend has no doubt is frustrated in finding out our apartment is cleaned out.  And that he will have a hard time tracing us here."

"But what about you?" I asked.

"I think it's time to start the Michael Clarke Private Detective Agency."

"What?"

"It's a good front for Shadowrunners."

"I'm not a Shadowrunner."

"How are you going to eat?"

"Huh?"

"You don't exist, I had your records erased by the best Hacker we know, and as a result you have no job.  How are you going to eat?"

"I'm not a Shadowrunner.  They live on the streets or in a lowcost apartment, doing criminal things."

"How are you going to eat?" Michael asked again.  He was talking in Or'zet.  Through this whole time, he's talking in Or'zet.  "After all, mabaj bot ob armauk!"

I have a world of enemies, a common Or'zet exclaimation.  I sighed, he was right.  We need to eat, even real food.  And yes, we do seem to have a world full of enemies.  "Okay, lets do some Shadowrunning."

Mike hit me on the back.  Orks don't pat you on the back, they hit you on the back.  It's a show of affection. "That's the spirit, Robby!" Mike exclaimed in English.  I was wondering when or how this was going to happen.  Running the darkness and fighting the Man.  Still, I needed to banish such thoughts.

As a Mormon, I would dedicate the house to the Father.  As a psion, I had to make sure that the house was in harmony with it's environment, first.  The Chinese called this Feng Shui -- and they often build everything according to Feng Shui.  Other magicians called this empowering the lodge.  However, Buddha and Yahushua were often right, a ritual is often not needed only the intent.

But still, I needed to make sure each part of the house resonated correctly.  I'm not a Feng Shui expert.  But I do know that I had to make sure every vibration of the house vibrated in harmony.  I left the study and headed into the Great Room.  I sat down, in Lotus position and began to make myself in tune with the vibrations of the house.  I wanted the house to be a house where Yahushua would be pleased and happy to visit.  So I felt for each and every nook and cranny.  Attuning myself to the vibrations and the songs of the house.

Just when I started to hear the songs of the house, Silvara came down and asked, "what would you like to eat, Master?"