Welcome. 3

Less Than Standard Curiosity takes place in Bishi World, a world and story and idea that came from Songwind's story Bishoujo & Bishonen, so it is not mine.

My characters, all original, will be listed at the bottom. I hope you enjoy! Please, read and review - the latter if possible!

Shinnie: Thank you for all your support! I'll try not to be so slow now!

"Must not click… Must not click…"

Her father's office was a remarkably Spartan room. All the necessities for work-away-from-work were neatly dispersed without a hint of clutter or dust to be found. A mahogany desk sat front and center, surrounded by barren walls painted an eggshell white; a Looney Tunes clock ticked silently from its corner. It was the only colorful piece in the room, but it wasn't something her father would go out and buy for himself. She had given it to him for Christmas, just to remind him of her ever-present spontaneity. Her father was like his office: plain, a little ordinary and with an inborn inability to understand his daughter's bizarre tastes and thought patterns. She was her mother's daughter after all. How her mother had seen anything interesting in such a lackluster man was one of Verliadaine's greatest unsolved mysteries. She doubted that Sherlock Holmes would have been able to deduce a valid or relatively plausible reason…

…Verliadaine – whom preferred her nickname Lia to the mouthful that was her first name – wondered if Sherlock Holmes would be struggling to resist the call of The Button, too.

"Must… not click…"

Whispering this mantra, Lia grappled with her inner demon. The greedy thing inside her demanded that she click "the button"; her rational side squeaked out little pleas in return. How many online games had she been conned into by some recycled promise of an awesome RPG storyline or ultimate characters?

'Best not answer that,' she thought ruefully. Purple lipstick stained lips puckering into a pout, she kicked her legs in the air like an unruly child. It was difficult for anyone to believe that she was already nineteen years old – she acted twelve most days. Even her younger sister, Buri, was the one who suffered "maturity" compliments more often than she did.

"If it hadn't mentioned catching popular Bishounen, then maybe I would have ignored the email… Seems like someone has learned of my weakness… I wonder who sent me this?" With an exaggerated sigh, Lia considered her options. She could do her schoolwork – there was a math test Friday and college Pre-Calculus had the potential to send her to an early grave. Or, like she did preferred to do, she could blow off schoolwork until the last minute and settle in for another night of sewing, cutting and starching madness. Both her school materials and her sewing kit were in the bag at her feet, its strap still looped around one wrist.

Glancing at her long-loved and abused Comic Con 2007 bag, the decision-stricken teenager tapped her fingers contemplatively. Maybe making dinner first wasn't such a bad idea: her dad and little sister would be home late. Buri had an equestrian competition and –

- Lia's finger tapped a tad too hard. Without warning, a kaleidoscope of colors burst in reality before her eyes, dazzling her. The world spun riotously as Lia experienced the strangest sensation of vertigo and suddenly all the colors were rushing at her, into her, through her. A constant flux of sensation, and yet all her senses felt oddly distant, almost muted. Dizzy, vaguely nauseous, Lia succumbed to the simplest of solutions. Unconsciousness.

"I do not advise stepping off that cliff. It will lead to your immediate termination from this world."

"Y-Yuki! You're supposed to stop her, not wh-whatever you're… doing…"

"The Newbie is sleep-walking. The power of suggestion is persuasive enough."

"But…!"

"She stopped, Charmichael, has she not?"

"Y-Yes, well… Yuki, what if that hadn't worked?"

Lia stirred briefly from the depths of slumber, idly wondering how someone's voice could sound so… mechanical.

"Negative. The chance of failure was less than 2.39%. There is now a chance of .021%. Worry is not necessary."

Lia almost didn't want to open her eyes. This was, by far, the strangest conversation she had ever eavesdropped on. It was almost safe to assume that she was the person under speculation: the words "sleep-walking" had clued her in. As one of her most embarrassing habits, she could neither explain nor correct it. She didn't know anyone else who did and therefore concluded, even while still half drowsing, that she was being talked about.

Well, whoever these people were, at least they weren't teasing her. From the sounds of their conversation, they had even managed to save her from walking off the side of a…

'Wait, I don't live near any cliffs.' Filled with trepidation and a healthy dose of fear, Lia opened her eyes. Her eyelids squeaked quietly and drooped for several seconds. Disorientated by a harsh stream of sunlight, she scrubbed at her face and properly woke up. Her stomach did a back flip: barely two paces in front of her the ground fell away as if swallowed by the sky. Great stretches of uninhabited landscape sprawled out along the horizon; the countryside was liberally sprinkled with forest growth. A golden ribbon snaked its way south in the distance. From what she could tell, it was a massive river system, with banks that appeared nearly a mile apart at some points.

Swallowing an instinctive yelp, Lia hastily backed away. A pair of hands grasped her arms and a surprised gasp sounded from behind her. Squeaking, startled, Lia spun, pulling away from...

Her breath shuddered as she met a pair of doe-ish hazel eyes, heavily fringed with lashes. It wasn't the kind, nervous expression on the strange girl's face that caused Lia to freeze in place. This girl, although they had never met, was anything but a stranger in Lia's eyes.

"Ashiya? Ashiya Mizuki!?"

A bright, friendly smile lit up the young girl's face: her boyishly cut hair fluttered on the breeze. "Yes?" She replied, her voice relaxed if a tad humorous. Hana-Kimi's cross-dressing heroine continued to smile questioningly at Lia as she, in return, visibly gawked. A tremor of excitement rolled through her initial disbelief. This was one heck of a dream so far. At least, Lia thought it was a dream, as that was the only way that Ashiya Mizuki, a manga character, could be talking to her…

"Um, hello there. I realize waking up like this may be rather disconcerting, but I assure that you are not dreaming, hallucinating or having some sort of mental episode. I'd pinch you, but, err, only if you want me to. I'm Charmicheal Jeffrey by the way, a Novice Trainer here in Bishi World, and…"

Lia turned a frowning gaze onto the boy standing a little ways behind Mizuki, wondering if he had been there the whole time. Recalling that Mizuki's voice hadn't been the mechanical-sounding one from earlier, she quickly glanced around for its source.

"ACK!" Squeaking uncharacteristically for the second time in the past several minutes, Lia staggered side-ways. Somehow, another shorthaired girl had come to be standing soundlessly besides her without Lia noticing. It took approximately two point six seconds for Lia to recognize the silver-haired, amber-eyed Bishoujo. Gasping, Lia quickly added a dignified squeal to her previous squeak.

"Nagato! Nagato Yuki! Here! In person! And I'm not dreaming, hallucinating or under the influence! Sweetness!!" Lia cheekily shot the largely ignored and baffled Charmicheal a wink after this. Spending another minute examining the alien female, she decided that the anime and manga did her no justice. So cute! So tiny! So monotonous! So alien! Tempted to as the Bishoujo where Suzumiya Haruhi was [along with Kyon, Izumi and every other character from that series], Lia flipped her attention back to the poor, helpless boy who'd introduced himself as Charmicheal Jeffrey.

"Isn't your name backwards?"

The boy – whom appeared about sixteen or seventeen years of age, grimaced, having obviously lived through this same comment before. "Isn't it always?" He shot back grumpily, jaw jutting out in a mulish manner.

Lia shrugged her shoulders and paused when a weight pulled down on her left side. Still slung over her shoulder was her abused Comic Con bag and all its assorted contents. Grinning manically, Lia drove a hand inside and whipped out a camera. Before any of the other three knew what to expect [except for perhaps Yuki, who likely didn't care], Lia had already snapped a picture of them.

"Hey! W-wait, what was that for?" Charmicheal sputtered, waving his hands futilely out in front of himself.

"I take pictures of everyone I meet," Lia fibbed promptly, happily stowing her precious Nikon, Chucky, back into her bag. "Now, Charmander, what was it you were saying? Something about Bishi World? You mean, the one that email mentioned? It really – I mean, obviously it does – exist? How does that work? This is kinda… a parallel dimension, right?"

Peering at the boy expectantly, she took his momentary confusion and irritation to look him over. He was a rather short boy for his age, but already four or so inches taller than her slight five foot, two inches. His dark brown hair struck her as naturally unruly and so its windswept fashion was anything but coincidence. He had light brown eyes, flecked with green, which flicked shyly into the distance whenever she tried to hold his gaze. Slim, he was almost coltish and agile of stature.

'Quick to flee from girls still, I'll wager…' Lia mused to herself, grinning wolfishly. In the meantime, having somehow missed or ignored her long, silent scrutiny, Charmicheal had started speaking again.

"Please don't call me Charmander… although, ironically, this world has some Pokemon-like attributes. First of all, welcome to Bishi World, a place where you can capture, train, battle and live with various Bishounen or Bishoujo s'long as you follow the rules."

"Wait…" Lia didn't bother to apologize for interrupting, too busy pointing a finger between the "Trainer" and "Bishoujo". "So you… 'caught' Mizuki and Yuki? They belong to you?"

Charmicheal's jaw jutted out a little further as he shook his head. "Yes and no. I did capture Yuki with a Bish-ball, but both of them belong to themselves and are complete individuals in their own right. I'm only their trainer…"

Mizuki, smiling gently at the young boy, nodded agreeably. "That's true. If he wanted to leave here, though, he would have to set us free. We are bonded together."

From behind Lia, Yuki's one-tone voice quietly spoke up, "Charmicheal is the type of Trainer to ask permission of the Bishi he finds." The young alien remarked placidly, eyeing her trainer as he abruptly turned a flaming red around the ears. Apparently he hadn't expected her to say anything – Yuki's character wasn't the type to speak of her mind. Normally… Lia had an inkling that this world was anything but storyline. She recalled reading, briefly, mentioning of battles and exploring and something about compatibility, on that website.

"Speaking of which – is this really everything that email talked about? I mean… this is all real?"

"Exactly." Charmicheal concluded, nodding. "And more, much more than I can describe to you."

Briefly overwhelmed by possibilities and notions of opportunities, Lia turned a slow circle where she stood. Emotion welling up in her throat and constricting her throat, she threw up her arms without warning. Mizuki blinked, jumping a little as Lia suddenly let out a loud whoop. Yuki found herself caught up in Lia's hold and spun around.

Eyes glinting, Lia made to do the same to Mizuki but found a flushed, annoyed-looking Charmicheal in the way. Folding her arms over her chest, Lai hmphed once and, sly as a fox, began to grin. Leaning forward, she whispered, "Don't like 'em busty, eh?"

Charmicheal sputtered indignantly at her as she took off running. Lia crowed gleefully as she went, "Well, Charmander, let's get going!"

Mizuki giggled as the Newbie took off, gesturing for them to follow. "Isn't she fun?" She laughed, tucking her hands into her pocket. Charmicheal shook his head: "Or crazy. I'm not sure yet." He muttered, eyeing the short, raspberry-haired girl from afar. He watched as she spun another circle straight into a cartwheel, her bag flopping to the ground. He shook his head again, "Or, maybe she really is… Great."

"Chances are eighty two percent to eighty five percent." Yuki remarked, striding slowly past her Trainer. He grumbled at her and followed, calling out for Lia to wait…

…She was going the wrong direction, after all.

Thus ends chapter one of my new fanfiction. Less Than Standard Curiosity was inspired by my good friend and fellow authoress, ShadowShinigami13. Her story, which everyone should read since it's incredibly cute, is on the same timeline of Bishi World as mine is. In fact, if it hadn't been for Shinnie, this story wouldn't exist. Lovely, eh?

Please, read, enjoy, whatever you like. Review? I'd enjoy that too. This is probably the shortest chapter I've planned right now, but I would like to know what you think. More description, less description, more conversation, less conversation? I like opinions? Haha, thanks everyone. And thank you, Shinnie, for being amazing.

I'll have Chapter Two up as soon as I'm able!