Anime-ted
“Well meet you back here at 7 pm sharp – in time to get seats for the masquerade. Got it?” John looked into the eager faces of his two nephews and his son. All three were coiled springs ready for release. All three nodded eagerly. He held their gaze a moment as he would any Alphan crew he had worked with. It usually worked – with anyone but his sister-in-law. “All right. Off you go.”
They shot down the hallway as if propelled by a cannon.
“Okay, now what?” Alan asked. Hands stuffed in his jeans pockets. The three boys had asked to come to the science fiction convention at the Orlando Convention Center. They were eleven and twelve and five thousand scifi fans sounded like paradise to them. Networked video games, movies, laser tag, live action role playing games, there wouldn’t be enough time to do everything. The boys had been working on their parents for months and the mothers had finally given in, as long as their fathers were willing to take them.
“We could head over to Disney and do a round of golf,” Alan suggested hopefully.
“Helena made me promise to stay here.”
“You just let them go. If they needed us, how would they find us anyway.”
“They’ll call us.”
“Exactly. So what does it matter if we’re here or a few miles away?”
“I promised Helena.”
Alan knew that would be the final word. John wouldn’t budge from a promise to Helena.
“Maybe we can find a movie to watch.”
Alan pulled out the booklet that included a five page grid of activities. “There should be something interesting to do.”
An oversize young man in a t-shirt that said “Live Long and Prosper” was walking past. He paused and said. “You could always check out the fourth floor.”
“What’s there, mate?”
“It’s the over 18 spot. X-rated scifi and anime. They card you when you get off the stairs. I’ve heard they’re showing some wicked stuff.”
Another twenty-something paused. This one had a white t-shirt splashed with red and a plastic alien attached, meant to look like it was clawing its way out of exposed internal organs. “The fourth floor? I’ve heard they’ve got some new anime that’s never been released outside Japan.”
The trekkie nodded. “Three big screens and its own dealers room. Plus a hospitality suite with a cappuccino bar.”
The alien victim looked at a sticker on Trekkie’s badge. “You were at the Ygor/Igor party last night?”
“Yeah, those old guys from Tampa know how to throw a great party. You should have seen all the different kinds of beer they had.” The two drifted down the hall together, discussing the party attended the previous evening. Alan gave a nod as he looked at the map of the convention center in his program book.
“Here it is, one of those fourth floor suites. You’re carded at the top of the escalator. We’ve probably seen all the films, but coffee sounds good. Mel had me up late and the boys were raring to go at sunrise.”
“What if the boys need us?”
“They’ll call us. They’re not going to do a room to room search.”
The Orlando Convention Center is big, very big. Even with all the activities available, the five thousand fans did not crowd the half of the south complex reserved for their use. Alan led the way up the escalator to the third level, then down a hall and around a corner to the escalator leading up to an additional floor to the secluded fourth level, a suite of smaller rooms with balconies overlooking the lower floors and out across the parkland to International Drive and the tourist district of Orlando.
They had been sized up by the man at the top of the escalator before they reached him. He wore a black t-shirt with a satellite photo of Florida on it and a collection of Eagles aiming for Tampa, proclaiming a convention from over ten years ago in neon green lettering. He also had a badge from which a red ribbon dangled declaring “SECURITY” in gold letters.
“Need to card us, mate?” Alan asked with amusement.
“You two look over 18 to me,” the man said casually. He sat on a stool and held open a battered paperback of “Stranger in a Strange Land.” He looked closer at them. “Say, weren’t you two on Moonbase Alpha?”
Both Alan and John nodded. Introductions and handshakes revealed that the Heinlein fan worked at the space center as an electrician and had been a very junior technician with his own aspirations to go into space before Breakaway.
“They always need good techs on the Rock,” Alan said.
“At one time, I’d have been first in line. But the wife and kids are here on Earth.”
John and Alan nodded sympathetically, they exchanged business cards and polite conversation for a few minutes then they asked the way to the cappuccino bar and left the man to turn back three teenagers ascending from below.
Coffees in hand, they sat at a table on the balcony with a view of the area. There were both men and women coming and going from the three viewing rooms and the small dealer’s room.
“We’ll have to check it out,” John said with a nod toward the dealer’s room and a grin. “Might be something we can take back to the girls.”
Alan smiled. Mel had
probably seen it all and done it all, but the thought of John taking some adult
scifi to the more proper Helena was amusing.
Of course, John had been besotted with her for years, and from his
testimony, Helena seemed to have a hotter side she saved for him alone behind
closed doors.
After their cups were empty they browsed through the dealer’s room. It was much smaller than the cavernous one below that offered everything from swords to vampire teeth, but there were about ten dealers all offering various forms of erotica. Several sold recordings of various sorts, both audio and video. Other dealers specialized in erotic manga and anime. There was one dealer with small dolls from the various erotic anime being shown in the adjacent video room.
The dolls were drawing a good deal of attention as the dealer showed off one in a large box, explaining that it had never been offered in the U.S. before. The figure was a girl with long blonde hair and wide green eyes. She was dressed in a stylized ninja outfit that seemed to hide nothing – certainly not the doll’s voluptuous figure. He also had the anime and manga that went with the dolls.
“Someone picked up the video and asked, “Does this have an English soundtrack?”
“English subtitles only. The show has never been marketed here.”
“Those English subtitles never make sense.”
“These do, although with the action on the screen you may not notice. But rumor has it the original manga was written in English. Melluchan is one of a kind.”
John nudged Alan. “Isn’t that what Taro calls Mel?”
Alan nodded, looking at the doll. She held a stylized sword in her hand that looked more than a bit phallic and she had an aggressive look in her eyes the way Melissa sometimes looked when she was angry. Taro’s nickname for Melissa seemed pretty accurate.
“Melluchan is playing in video room two on this level all
day,” the dealer said. “There are twenty-four episodes, each one
hotter than the last.”
John and Alan moved on. “We should check it out.”
“Why not?” Alan said. They finished the round of the little dealer’s room and headed for the video room.
The room was long and narrow with a large screen at the end opposite the door. The chairs were typical of the convention center, cushioned straight-backed, not particularly comfortable. There were probably around 150 chairs and the room was more than half-filled.
John and Alan waited for their eyes to adjust and in bright flashes from action on the screen they found their way to empty seats.
A soundtrack of strident music and voices calling in Japanese came from the speakers. English subtitles appeared at the bottom, but this was a climactic fight scene, so the subtitles were few.
The heroine vanquished the bad guys with her phallic sword and trusty sidekick, a worshipful skinny youth with a shock of dark hair that always seemed to be in his eyes. She gave her sidekick a triumphant kiss on the lips as the bodies of the villains lay scattered around them. The crowd reacted to this with cheers and hoots.
Someone in the chair behind them leaned forward. “Ever seen Melluchan before?”
“Never.” Alan replied softly.
“This is episode five. Almost a quarter of the way through the series. Melluchan and her sidekick, Tama get in the usual scrapes, fighting crime, helping the helpless. Tama is hopelessly in love with her but she takes a different lover in every episode. She doesn’t exactly lead him on, but there’s some fairly clever double entendre in most of her comments. This is the good part, she’ll go off with her latest lover and Tama is left with his fantasies. There’s one of these in every episode.”
Their faceless guide set back to enjoy the action.
As he said, Melluchan headed off with a biker in black leather who showed up just as the fight ended and promised to sweep her off to clean up in a bubble bath. Melluchan waggled her fingers at Tama who was left to clean up the mess while noticing the wriggle in her ample hips. Once the villains were safely in police custody he strung a hammock and settled into a daydream.
The dissolve into the “Hammock Kama Sutra” was greeted with cheers from the experienced fans in the audience. The dream sequence sent the hammock to a deserted beach. Melluchan arrived from the water, walking up onto the beach clothed only in bubbles that popped and floated away provocatively as she approached the hammock. The hammock rocked realistically as she joined the surprisingly well-endowed Tama.
“Can you really do that in a hammock?” John murmured as the almost supernaturally limber animated characters moved together.
“Takes practice,” Alan replied. “But, yeah.” Alan should know, he and Mel had performed that maneuver the previous evening.
The moans in the soundtrack needed no translation as climax was mutually reached. Melluchan held still, holding onto Tama as long as possible. She murmured praise to his size and stamina. Then she murmured something that translated as “Draw it out slowly, Tama-kun. I love the way it feels.”
Alan stiffened at Tama complied, taking a ridiculously long time to the delight of the audience. He turned to the helpful guide behind them. “How old is this series mate?”
“They were new in the mid nineties when I was stationed in Japan. Very popular on Okinawa. I think the manga version is a bit older, but not much.” The man replied.
Alan nodded and turned around, watching the show again. The dream sequence ended and Melluchan returned for her sidekick. Their travels continued and they encountered more trouble. Just as they were about to be attacked the credits rolled. The lights came up and the audience moaned, ready for more.
The twenty-two minute episodes were set to start on the hour and half hour, giving time for breaks and for people to come and go. Alan’s phone buzzed in his pocked and he pulled it out and answered it. It was the boys, breathlessly telling him they had entered a tournament on a computer game and they might win real prizes. He wished them luck, promised to come watch a round later in the day.
“Want to watch another episode?” Alan asked after conveying the boys’ message.
“Sure. We have to see how she gets out of that scrape she’s in.” John replied. “And how about that hammock scene?”
Alan grinned. “The show is pretty clever.” He frowned, thinking of the hammock scene. There was something about it… but how much could you really do in a hammock? Perhaps Mel had even watched this show some time when she’d been in Japan and gotten the whole idea of what could be done in a hammock from there.
The tide turned and more people were coming in than going out. Several carried cups of coffee and sweet rolls. Alan offered to go get them some. He arrived back just as the action started.
“What did I miss?”
“Nothing. The credits are all in Japanese.” John said. “Except one. Don’t know what it was for, but it said M. Thompson.”
Alan did a doubletake. “M. Thompson?”
John nodded. “English letters. All the rest was in Japanese. Funny, huh?”
“Funny.” Alan echoed.
“Shhh!” Someone said from in front of them.
The story unfolded. The blonde warrior goddess met new victims that needed protection, found a new lover, fought a new villain and Tama ended up in the hammock again. While the rest of the crowd made appreciative noises, Alan remained silent. He knew that move. It was one of their favorites.
Alan sat through the end of the episode then stood as the credits rolled. “I need to make a call.”
“A call?”
“To Mel,” he said, already moving down the aisle.
“What for?” John asked.
“To find out what the hell she had to do with this show.”
“How do you know – “
“I just do! Okay?”
They were out on the balcony now and Alan had his phone out. With the touch of the number one speed dial button he placed the call.
Melissa and Helena were sitting in a small sandwich shop that looked out over a trendy shopping area. Several bags sat on the floor by their feet. Tori and Suzie were in Texas at a horse show this weekend with their grandmother, and the sisters had decided to spend the morning shopping. Melissa had a mint chocolate shake and a turkey sandwich. Helena had chosen sweet tea and a club sandwich with a large chocolate chip cookie for desert.
Melissa’s phone played “Treetop Flyer” and she fished it from her purse, set it on the table between them and touched the button to answer the call using the speaker phone.
“How’s the scifi convention?”
“Tell me about a Japanese anime show called Melluchan.”
“What do you want to know about it?”
“What was your involvement with it?”
“Why would you ask that?”
“Mel!” Alan’s tone had moved from angry to frustrated. “Your name’s in the damned credits.”
“Really? On the anime?”
“Are you trying to tell me you’ve never seen it?”
“Actually, I haven’t ever seen the anime. It’s never been released in the U.S.”
“Well they’re showing it here at the convention.”
“They are? I wonder if that’s legal. Where did they get it?”
“How should I know? You still haven’t answered me.”
“What kind of show is this?” Helena asked.
“It’s a Japanese anime – a cartoon.” Melissa explained.
“But not for kids. It’s soft porn, just animated. “And maybe not that soft, Melissa. Why is your name in the credits?”
“Your name is in the credits of some porn movie?” Helena asked, startled.
“It’s not a porn movie, just a little animated series,” Mel corrected her sister. Then to Alan she said, “And I think porn is a little harsh.”
“Does something called the Hammock Kama Sutra ring a bell? You can’t get more explicit than that, Mel. Melissa, were you the model for Melluchan?” Alan asked.
“Well, I didn’t actually model. At least not for the anime. I did pose for the conception art for the manga.”
“You what?” Helena exclaimed. She looked around the restaurant. It was still a little early for the lunch crowd on a Saturday and they practically had the restaurant to themselves – thankfully.
“It was just business. But I posed for the drawings and wrote the storyline for the first six volumes of the manga. That’s the comic book,” she explained to her sister.
“You wrote it?” Helena asked, incredulous.
“I knew it!” Alan said. “It just sounded like you.”
“It was a long time ago. I received creative credits and writing credits, and still get a little royalty check from it. It’s supposed to be pretty popular in Japan.”
John’s voice was heard for the first time. He had been standing next to Alan and had reached over and turned it to speaker phone when he heard his wife’s voice. “Now that you say it, it does look remarkably like you.”
“Thank you,” Mel said, pleased.
“I don’t think he meant it as a compliment.”
“Of course he did, dear. Alan, I wrote this a long time ago. What’s the problem?”
“Well I have a problem with it. Remember that we look a lot alike, so if this is your face, in this porn movie –“
“Anime,” Mel corrected.
“Whatever!” Helena mimicked her teenage daughter, frustration evident. “Mel! It’s my face too!”
“Look guys. I did this ages ago. Back in the early nineties. It was just for fun, and I made a little money at it. It’s really no big deal.”
“No big deal? Then why haven’t you ever mentioned it before?”
“It never came up.”
“And you’re being pretty evasive about it now.”
“I’ll be happy to tell you all about it but right now we’re both in public places talking on speaker phones.”
“Maybe I don’t want to hear all the sordid details.”
“Well maybe if you disapprove so strongly of my sordid past, you shouldn’t even bother to come home.” Melissa reached over and pressed the button to disconnect.
She and Helena both stared at the phone for a moment in silence.
Melissa swallowed hard, her eyes still on the phone. “I don’t think I should have said that.”
Alan stared at the silent phone in his hand. “She just hung up on me! Do you believe that?”
John wisely kept silent and watched his friend. Usually, Alan was laid back and easygoing, but he had a hotheaded streak and when he got angry he had a tendency to speak before he thought. Now Alan stuffed the phone in his pocket and headed for the escalator.
“Let’s go watch the boys play in that tournament.”
John glanced back at the door to the room where the next installment of Melluchan was starting.
“Don’t even think about watching more.” Alan said sharply.
John shrugged and got on the escalator. He’d follow his friend, but had to admit he was now even more intrigued by the series.
The boys did well in the tournament. They were a team on a networked game. They played all afternoon and had a blast. And they won. They won a load of computer games and by evening were ready to head home. Geoff and Robbie asked if they could go home with their cousin who had the newest game system. John said yes, with a significant look at Alan.
Alan had focused on the boys for the afternoon with a false heartiness that had John watching him closely. Hopefully Alan would use the time to go home and make up with Melissa. They took the boys to Friendly’s for supper and ice cream just down International Drive from the convention center then headed back to Cocoa. Alan dropped them all at John’s house and left.
He sat at the stoplight at the exit from the subdivision and considered where to go next. As the light turned green, he turned toward the bridge that would take him out to Merritt Island and the Coastal Condos.
The clerk at the desk greeted Alan by name and asked if he wanted the usual room. Alan agreed because it was easiest. He signed to register, parked in front of the condo and walked across the street to the bait and tackle store for a six-pack of beer. He settled on the balcony with the bottles at hand to watch the boats on the river and think.
It was after midnight when Alan’s phone rang in his pocket. The empty beer cans were stacked in a pyramid by his chair and he had dozed off. He started from sleep and fished for the phone, wondering if it were Mel, wondering what he would do if it was.
He decided not to look at the screen to see who was calling. He simply put the phone to his ear and said, “Yeah.”
The male voice in his ear said, “Alan-san, did I wake you?”
Alan kept his eyes closed. “Did she put you up to calling me?”
“She told me you were upset. I thought perhaps I could answer any questions you had.”
“She’s being awful coy about this, Taro. Almost like she’s ashamed of it.”
“We were very young at the time, Alan. And not well-versed in thinking about the consequences to our future selves. She is now a respected businesswoman, wife and mother. And we never intended this for the U.S. market. Your viewing in so public a place took her by surprise.”
“So what was your part in it?”
“When I met Melissa, I was a drowning man. I was trying so hard to please my father it was killing me. He expected me to be a dutiful son and train to hold the reins of the family business. He wanted me to prove that I could be a success. I wanted to be an artist. Our very dear Melissa showed me I could be a successful artist. To my surprise, my father was happy and so was I.”
“You drew the comic?”
“I started with a drawing of Melissa that first night we met. She created a traditional manga story to go with it.”
“So she wrote it.”
“And encouraged me to market it. When it came time to sell it, I found that the education in business my father insisted I have allowed me to negotiate an excellent contract for the both of us. Mel wrote the stories for several while I was drawing the first one. Then she continued to send story lines for me to draw once she returned to the States.”
“She told me she still gets a royalty check.”
“The books remain in print. The anime and licensing agreements continue to be profitable. We were co-creators, but we have both long since moved on to other projects.”
“Hmmm.” Alan said, thoughtfully. “Taro, were you in love with her?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Then Taro chuckled. “At first, I wasn’t certain she was even real. I was afraid she was a product of too much alcohol consumption. I had not been truly sober in… much too long. Then I thought she was perhaps like one of those Greek goddesses, a Muse? But no more real than that. I kept thinking she would vanish.
“Alan, my friend. I love Melissa in a way I have never loved anyone else. She is one of my most trusted friends. And our relationship was not platonic, you must know.”
Alan coughed. “I can pretty much tell that from the anime.”
“I am certain we wrote a lot of our own experiences into the stories. To be honest I haven’t seen them in over ten years myself.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot of Melissa in Melluchan.”
“But you must understand that those events occurred many years ago. Melissa was not someone I could confine and control. To be honest, she was so far outside my realm of experience, it never occurred to me to try to control her. When she decided to return home, it was a surprise to me, and I certainly missed her, but I never considered trying to convince her to stay. Perhaps I still didn’t believe she was quite real.”
“There are times I wonder that myself.”
“I can understand that. Alan, I do assure you that all our work on Melluchan was long before she met and fell in love with you.”
Alan mulled this over. He had no reason not to doubt Taro. Perhaps hearing it from him had eliminated a lot of the shouting that would have occurred had he heard it from Melissa. He rubbed his eyes. “Taro, I appreciate your call.”
“I am glad to hear that. I hoped I had not overstepped our friendship. I value that friendship very much.”
“As do I.” He sighed. “I think I’m ready to talk to Mel now.”
“Then I will wish you a good night.”
Alan closed the phone and leaned back in his chair. He heard a rustle in the bedroom. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Just a minute or two,” Melissa said, stepping out onto the balcony.
Alan looked her up and down as if seeing her for the first time. She had dressed for seduction. His eyes traveled from the red high heels that tied at the ankle, just below the ruby anklet he had given her, up bare and shapely legs to the split in the skirt of her silky red dress. The dress was low cut and form fitting, backless, with a halter top fastened at the back of the neck. A metal choker held a large cabochon ruby. She had on matching ruby earrings and her blonde hair was swept up into a tortoise-shell clip. She struck a pose and let him look. She was a knockout. He reached out and hooked his finger with hers.
“I didn’t mean that part about not coming home.”
He took a firmer grasp on her hand, his thumb rubbing her palm. “I just needed some time to think. Taro called.”
“I really never tried to hide this from you. It’s just I know you don’t want to hear about my former liaisons. And I couldn’t ever really find of a way to bring it up.”
He pulled her into his lap. She came willingly, nuzzling his neck as his hand moved up her thigh. “It’s not exactly dinner conversation with the kids around.”
“No,” she said, taking a breath his hand moved between her legs, and his fingers began to toy with her.
“And how much have you made from this?”
“It varies.” She kissed his ear lobe and shifted her hip against his lap. Both were aroused and more interested in action than talk. “When I first came back to the States it was enough to allow me to live comfortably while I got ready to go to grad school. Once I graduated and established my travel agency, I just invested it as it came in. It’s now usually just a small quarterly amount.”
“Do you have a copy of the video?”
“Alan, take me to bed.”
His fingers continued to tease. “Do you?”
“No,” she gasped. “I’ve never seen the video.”
“It looked a lot like what we did last night.” He had to chuckle. “John was impressed.” He closed his eyes and held her tight. Their escapades in the hammock had always been something he felt was special to the two of them and he felt a bit disappointed that he hadn’t been the one to invent those activities with her. Seeing that part of the video had been quite a shock.
“We’ll have to get Taro to find us a copy. Maybe there’s something you’ve forgotten to teach me.”
She tried to twist, change positions, but he held her fast, increasing the tempo. “Alan!”
He loved it when she called his name. “Yes?” he teased.
“Take me to bed!”
He shifted to cradle her in his arms and stood. He placed his mouth over hers, kissing her deeply and a little roughly. She responded, arms around his neck. He knew the way to the bed. He dropped her to the bed and she reached for his fly. He barely gave her time to tug his pants down before he was on top of her. She barely had time to lift her skirt, and as he had already found, she had on no underwear. She screamed his name as she climaxed and he released into her with a roar, savoring every time she called his name. Locking her eyes with his own, he pulled out slowly, watching the look of pleasure on her face. He smiled.
Melissa touched his cheek. “If I had told you when we first met…”
Alan kissed her and rolled to lay next to her. He took her hand in his. “I realized at about the third beer that if you had told me, I would have been all over you.”
“You were all over me.”
They both laughed.
“I guess I was. Want to go home?”
She curled up against him. “In the morning.”
He gathered her in his arms and smiled as she fell asleep. It didn’t take long before he slept too.
Two days later his secretary knocked quietly on his office door. “Mr. Carter? You have a package here marked personal and confidential.”
“Really?” Alan frowned. He hadn’t ordered anything lately, and he usually had personal items sent to the house. He leaned back from the design table and held out a hand.
As soon as he saw the labels he knew what it was. “Hmm. Thanks, Chelsea, Close the door on the way out, will you?”
Chelsea nodded and left.
He pulled the tag to open the thin but durable cardboard box. Out came a manila envelope and a plastic disk holder. The label was in Japanese, but the illustration was of Melluchan in her standard pose as warrior princess. He smiled and set it aside. A note attached to the envelope was in Taro’s elegant script.
“My friend, I have kept these in safekeeping for a number of years, more than it seems possible. I thought it was time to place them in your capable hands. With my compliments, T”
The envelope was sealed and hadn’t been opened in years. Inside were two drawings from a sketchpad. Both were of a young Melissa. In the first she as standing in the same pose as Melluchan, including sword. Her blonde hair was worn long and curled seductively around her face and neck. In the second, she lay curled and sleeping, naked and innocent as a kitten. Alan had seen Taro’s legal signature enough to recognize his name in Japanese characters at the bottom of each page. Behind the drawings were a dozen prints of Melissa at the same age in various stages of undress, each pose more provocative than the last. Mel was a knockout now. In her early twenties she had been a heart-stopper. The come-hither look on her face in these pictures made him want to crawl into the paper and take her right now. And Taro’s drawings showed that he had the talent to capture that look on paper. He tucked them all back in the envelope, and turned to unlock the credenza behind him. He might have to install a safe at home or rent a safe deposit box at the bank for the photos. Tonight he and his wife would do a little research on technique with the Melluchan disk.
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