Front Matter to :

The Further Adventures of Sebastian:

Part the First,

or: The Punishment of Living

A Babylon 5 fanfiction based **immediately** after "Comes the Inquisitor".

by BelaVrana

Things to keep in mind or know:

WEll, the main thing to know right now is that the story is/will be down for revision. I don't know that it matters if i tell people or not. No one has faved or followed or reviewed, though there are a few hundred page views over the course of the last couple years. So, some have certainly been interested enough to at least start reading. And the way i worded my previous intro might have left a few folks afraid to review the story, rather than just not caring to! So I am going to try to do right and let peeps know what's up.

I am for now leaving up at least the first chapter because I think its OK and I guess just cause I want to make sure people remember what story it IS, if they haven't been here for a year or something. And so any new readers will get the idea of what type of story it is. I will leave a note here if I move it all as to where I moved it.

The reason I don't have beta readers is very simple. I would definitely not get this written if I did. Its taking me long enough anyway. I by no means think this is a great work of art, just because it is a work of art!

One problem is I don't think it was always clear what parts were meant as parody and what weren't. I am not a great writer, but I do think I am OK. I may not have the skills to parody really bad writing, or I might, hey, how would I know? But I think I needed to make the sections where I tried this clearer. I mean, I tried to parody a lot of things, and truly bad writing was one of those things. I don't think I differentiated enough what element was being poked fun at by which sections. And some sections were parody of bad writing and other things simultaneously.

Some things are still true :

" I had to write this because I had to write this. That's just all I can say. It's a compulsion! One that I tried to ignore for YEARS, but a compulsion nonetheless.

I don't care what you think of it, really. I'll admit that right now. This is, like, ART, OK?

But maybe you'll actually like it."

This still is true. Its not really done "for fun" but also not "serious" writing or any attempt to be a pro.

As is the following:

" As I said, the Mary Sue aspect is deliberately 100% blatant. The name of that terribly guilty party, myself, has been changed slightly, simply to reassure the reader that this story is in fact, fiction. Well, yeah, no kidding, I didn't really get taken by Vorlons, but, hey."

Thedisclaimer was worded poorly. I'm working on even that. But it is a different situation than mos stories.

* * * * The Babylon 5 episode "Comes the Inquisitor" storyline in itself MUST occur in an alternate Universe from the one we live in, since JMS's Ripper suspect did not disappear, but lived out his full life here on Earth. * * * *

I started tentative work on this story in late 1999.

And now it's 2014, so we're up to almost 15 years...

I'm keeping some older notes here, like these:

NotesFirst note: Just wanna reiterate: This is fanfiction, and as such is **fiction**. Even though this story has little to do with the actual Ripper cases, the crimes lurk in the background, and aspects make occasional appearances. No slander is meant toward the historical Reverend but it's too damn hard to write the whole thing without referring to him by name, or to his wife Henrietta, or to St. Jude's, or Toynbee Hall.

Second note: A clearer explanation of what started this.

The conventional stereotype of "Mary Sue" fanfiction, especially when based on TV or movies, is essentially that the female author has the hots for an actor who plays a character in the show/movie. That's why, for the most part, it has a terrible reputation. It isn't just that the genre is mainly written by females, (I believe statistics show that most genres of fanfic are written by more women than men anyway) but that bit of definite **weirdness**, y'know? The first Babylon 5 fics I tried to write involved everyone's dream guy, Marcus Cole, played by Jason Carter, and/or Neroon, played by John Vickery. I just couldn't bring myself to submit the stories anywhere, because the more I thought about it, the implication of Mary Sue was that I was actually writing fantasies about the actors themselves.

I believe this IS implied by the fact that Mary Sue is YOU, and YOU are a real person. This makes Mary Sue fiction a RealPerson! Fic about YOU. It won't be true in absolutely every case. But... If YOU are paired up with anyone in the fic- and you know you always are- that character verges close to the edge of RealPerson! too, in the person of the actor who plays the character.

And so, the pertinent question of this style of fiction becomes WHO are YOU fantasizing about?

I just told you who I'd been fantasizing about circa 1997... but a couple years later, next time I tried to write, because I still gravitated to the hated Mary Sue, I started wondering:

What B5 character would most set on its head the usual Mary Sue type of story?

Which characters would someone be least likely to want to end up alone in a room with? Who would you actually fear finding yourself alone with? What if you walked onto Babylon 5, and instead of your Dream Guy Marcus, you met a nightmare? Sebastian seemed a good candidate for a nightmare. Bester was another possibility. And there are others.

Now, the flip side of THAT flip side is- what IF the character you THOUGHT would be your nightmare turned out to BE your DREAM instead?

And in late 1999, one night I went to sleep and actually had a dream about something like this.

Yes, it was about Sebastian. And, yes, it was interesting.

This story is much, much different than the dream, but that dream is the genesis. I don't think you'd want to read the actual dream... I don't think you could read it... and formatting wouldn't be the only problem.

The genesis is that dream, and the quote from JMS in the Comes the Inquisitor episode guide (I'm thinking from "Lurker's Guide" been a while since I saw it.) where he said, "You don't break someone over tea" and I thought, "Why not? Why couldn't you?"

To follow the general idea of a TV show based Mary Sue story, of course, Sebastian HAS to resemble the actor, though, not the historical Reverend. And, our Mary Sue is not in the least devastated by this fact- but she is a bit disturbed by it. At first, anyway. Then she starts realizing they look more alike than she thought at first...

Now, here is your "philosophical" question: Is the implication of THIS story that I am writing a fantasy about myself and a historical figure? Or the same implication as any other Mary Sue? Or a combination of both? Or, something else entirely?

Which I know will not be quite answerable from reading an introduction.

And, yes, the road from nightmare to pleasant dream has a lot of bumps on it.

NOW FOR SOMETHING IMPORTANT:

**OK- big important note here** ** This story shifts between first-person viewpoints.**

**You'll *know* it shifts because I put the character's name as a heading, thus:

***Sebastian***

I went to the Zocalo to buy donuts for Kaitlyn. I wonder what she likes in her tea. I hope she doesn't want coffee. I have to drink tea, because I'm British.

Of course, this isn't part of the story, but an example of how it is formatted.

***Kaitlyn***

I hope Sebastian goes to Dunkin' and brings me chocolate cream filled donuts. Those are tasty. I'd really love an almond mocha flavor Iced Coffee, but I bet he's never heard of that.

Let's see... anything else?

Well, how about setting your mood with the last words Sebastian spoke in the episode?

"Good luck to you in your holy cause, Captain Sheridan. May your choices have better results than mine. Remembered not as a messenger, remembered not as a reformer...not as a prophet, not as a hero...not even as Sebastian.

Remembered only...as Jack."

OK, next, the story...