Before we get on with this chapter (which is a bit of an experiment; your endorsement or rejection of it will determine whether I write other chapters of this ilk in the future), I'll clear up the confusion of the last, and apologize for just how long these author's notes are going to be.

I was a bit surprised (likely due to the blatant obviousness of it in my own mind) that only two of you guessed correctly the cameos of "A Born Father."

The man was Kaiba Seto (or Seto Kaiba) from Takahashi Kazuki's Yu-Gi-Oh! The boy was his younger brother, Mokuba. These two are my favorite manga/anime characters from any series I've ever come to know (don't ask me why; I couldn't explain it if I tried), are my foremost inspiration for fanfiction writing, and will never be unseated. I accept no argument. There is no argument.

But anyway, vehement bias aside, I've an idea for another chapter rolling about in my head, but since it's a bit angsty I decided I should go with this idea first. #32 wasn't exactly a skip through a field of flowers (although one of you called it "cute" for some strange reason I don't think I'll ever understand), so I thought something light and funny would be best suited as a follow-up.

It will probably be a bit confusing to start with, and is yet another crossover, but in a different manner than my previous ones. The idea popped into my head after writing #30, and I decided I'd try my hand at it.

Enjoy.

"So...ye gonna tell us this business, or be we t' guess?"

After this question, the speaker took a long pull from the skin in his thick left hand, the right idly patting the head of the gigantic boar seated beside his chair. Frowning, he upended the skin and shook it.

"Oi!" he called. "Dobbins! 'Nother skin o' stout, 'f it does ya!"

The barkeep turned at the voice and nodded. "Aye, Master Thargor. At once."

Nodding, the dwarf named Thargor turned back to the business at hand. The young, thin woman standing before him, known to some as Black Thirteen (likely due to the silken black dress she wore almost exclusively when in public; if there was any significance to the number, Thargor didn't know it), nodded distractedly as she scanned the room with her silver eyes.

"A mission," she murmured. "From Stoutmantle, to the southwest. You know of him?"

"Know 'im?" Thargor repeated. "Aye, but I know Ol' Gryan Stoutmantle well enough. 'F it's for that one ye come 'ere, then ye've me ear, lass. Ye have it very well. Speak on, I beg."

"...It concerns the Brotherhood...doesn't it?"

The woman blinked. Turning toward the new voice, she nodded. "A-Aye...so it does. How did you...?"

"Stoutmantle has been fretting over the Defias uprising ever since it began," the voice, slightly muffled, replied softly. A figure, swathed in black leather armor with red cloth covering the bottom half of his face, stepped from the shadows and glanced fleetingly at Thargor.

The dwarf nodded and the man sat down at his table.

Leaning forward, the man looked up at Black Thirteen again. "I am one of the few to have left VanCleef's band without finding a ride in a pine box or a drop from the noose. If you intend to enter his mines...you would do well to have one who knows them with you, night elf."

The woman frowned. "...I see. But if you have been of his gang...how am I to trust your word?"

"Whether you trust me or not is your own course, and I'll not attempt to force it one way or another...I simply make an offer. I've personal...grievances with Edwin VanCleef that I intend to...clear up."

"Aye..." Thargor muttered. "But don't we all 'ave some grievances with 'at one. Ye go by the name o' Entreri, don't ye, lad? I seen ye 'round the 'Shire time an' again...whispers o' yer escape."

The man leaned back, and when the bartender came to the table with Thargor's drink, he ordered a flask of Port for himself and slipped enough coin on the table for both.

Thargor nodded his thanks and saluted with his skin before taking a swig.

"However..." Entreri continued, "...it would perhaps be sound strategy to find others to assist you...if you are to enter the mines, you would do well to be prepared."

"The mission afforded to me was to bring the head of VanCleef himself to Master Stoutmantle."

Entreri laughed sharply. "If that is your aim, you'd need a miracle! Do you think him such a simpleton that such a task would be done with just a dwarf and his pet pig?"

"Pithlit be more 'n a pig, Entreri," Thargor muttered. "An' don't ye be doubtin' 'at if ye 'adn't proved generous jus' now I'd be teachin' ye that..."

Entreri snorted dismissively.

"Pardon, good sir..."

Entreri looked over his shoulder. "...What?"

A sly smile rose on the face of the elven woman now standing behind Entreri, and she winked. Her curvaceous figure leaned close, and she leaned one elbow on the table.

"I hear you're in the market for a miracle...? I might be of assistance in that matter..."

"Bah!" Thargor spat. "Ye couldn' serve up a miracle 'f ye found one on a plate! Get ye back t' dancin' on mailboxes, Greenie!"

The elf sighed heavily. "The name afforded me by you fine people of Goldshire – for apparently my real name cannot find purchase in your heads – is Twinkle. If you must call me by some irritating nickname, at least use that one."

The elf's voice had taken on a hard edge, and even Entreri, a seasoned veteran of deception, blinked at the change. He frowned beneath his crimson mask. "...Twinkle, you say. You wear the vestments of one marked by Elune. A priestess?"

"I might be."

"Priestess!" Thargor snarled and laughed heavily. "I'd set me watch 'n warrant on ye bein' no more'n a Darnassian stuff-shirt's fun night out, so I would!"

Twinkle's eyes glinted with irritation.

"While I do visit Darnassus from time to time...I am no noble."

Blinking, Twinkle stared behind her. "Hey!" she snapped indignantly. "I am not just your fun night out, blue-boy!"

Black Thirteen sighed heavily at yet another interruption. "And...who are you, sir?"

The young man in blue robes shrugged his shoulders and ran a hand through his white hair. His green eyes glowed with arcane power. "Some call me the 'young old one.' Others 'Whitecrown.' More knowledgeable folk know me as the Blue Bend...or—"

Suddenly, someone on the other side of the tavern shot up and shouted at the top of their lungs:

"CAN SUM1 GIV M3 G0LD PLZKTHXBAI!!1!"

Hitsugaya slapped his forehead. "Damn it!"

Matsumoto giggled from beside him. "Right in the middle of your grand introduction, too."

From the speakers of his headset, Hitsugaya heard Renji laughing his head off. "Oh, shut it, Abarai! It's not that funny!"

"Sure it is! It's fuckin' hilarious!"

Rolling his eyes, Hitsugaya sighed. Even Ichigo was snickering.

"So, stranger..." Ichigo continued, lapsing into an amused version of his character's rasp, "what is it...that you call yourself?"

"...Icingdeath."

Another snicker from the orange-headed shinigami.

"Oh, what's funny now?" Hitsugaya demanded.

"Twinkle...and Icingdeath. That's cute."

"Oh, shut up, Entreri. Inoue suggested these, remember?"

"No, no...that's great. I like it."

He was still holding back laughter.

Hitsugaya ground his teeth. "Don't forget that my ability to freeze people isn't limited to this game," he snapped. "And I don't have to duel you to do it, either."

"Hey!" Rukia called. "Come on, now. We joined a role-playing server to play roles, didn't we? You're not in-character!"

"I think you might be taking the whole 'in-character' thing a bit seriously, you know," Matsumoto said. "After all, didn't you report Renji yesterday for asking Urahara for a bowl of rice? You do realize that the people in charge of this game don't listen to conversations over these headsets, don't you? They aren't going to do anything."

Rukia didn't respond for a long moment. She was probably sulking. "So? I still want to do this right. It's important!"

"Not really..." Hitsugaya murmured under his breath. "I just wanted to get my character a new weapon..."

Matsumoto nudged him. "Hush, Toushirou," she said. "We know you're not into the whole role-playing thing. You told us already that you think it's childish."

"Which is stupid since you're still playing the game," Ichigo put in. "If role-playing's childish, why ain't the game?"

Hitsugaya scowled. "Shut up, Kurosaki."

"A'right, a'right! Blind me eyes 'n carry the blessed home, but ye argue a lot!" Renji snapped in the voice of his dwarf, and stifled a snicker of his own (he had far too much fun with that voice, Hitsugaya thought). "Le's just get out 'n kill us a thief!"

"If we're killing thieves, I vote for Entreri first," Hitsugaya muttered.

"I'm a rogue, Icingdeath," Ichigo corrected.

"You're an idiot. Let's go."

Looking back at his screen, Hitsugaya saw a message there.

Entreri thinks you are a pint-sized little whiner.

Hitsugaya frowned. "Oh. Mature, Kurosaki. Very mature."

However, not two seconds later, Ichigo saw a message on his own monitor:

Icingdeath sets you on fire.

Ichigo came back with:

Entreri stabs you in the eye.

To which Hitsugaya replied:

Icingdeath doesn't need two eyes to kill you.

Ichigo responded with:

No, but he does need stilts.

Hitsugaya glared murderously. "I hope you choke."

Ichigo laughed.

Renji laughed as well.

Rukia was giggling.

Even Matsumoto was straining to hold back laughter.

Hitsugaya slouched in his chair and vowed to murder each and every one of them.

This chapter is rife with symbolism, which I will now clear up in case you didn't catch all (or any) of them.

Firstly, a few of you should recognize the setting and storyline of the majority of this chapter as being from World of Warcraft, an Alliance quest chain involving a sect of criminals known as the Defias Brotherhood.

Second, the names of Hitsugaya's and Matsumoto's characters, Icingdeath and Twinkle, are the names of the scimitars of R.A. Salvatore's famed drow elf ranger, Drizzt Do'Urden, who was born to Daermon N'a'shezbaernon (House Do'Urden), which in the beginning of the story was, ironically, Tenth House of the Drow city of Menzoberrenzan. It should also be noted that Twinkle is elven-forged (Matsumoto's character is an elf), and that Icingdeath was found in the treasure trove of a white dragon (the reference to Hitsugaya should be obvious here).

Ichigo's character name also comes from Salvatore's work. Artemis Entreri is Drizzt's chief rival in the realms of swordplay and morality, and is an immensely skilled assassin (and one of my favorite fictional villains in history, brief as my own history, two decades, has been). Ichigo's character is a rogue, befitting such a history.

Renji's character, the dwarf hunter Thargor, and his pet, Pithlit, refer to Tad Williams's science fiction series Otherland. Thargor the barbarian is the name of the role-playing character (in a game called Middle Country) of Orlando Gardiner, my personal favorite character in the series (and #10 of all time). Pithlit is the thief character of Orlando's best friend, Sam Fredericks. The name is reported to be a mispronunciation of A.A. Milne's character Piglet, from the Winnie the Pooh books. Pithlit, thus, is a boar.

Lastly, a few references come from Stephen King's Dark Tower, the greatest story EVER. Some, perhaps many, of you may disagree with me...you're wrong. Some of Thargor's dialogue ("if it does ya," "watch and warrant," "I beg") comes from the dialect of Calla Bryn Sturgis, the central setting of the fifth novel, and another of his lines refers to the song "Carry the Blessed Home," by Blind Guardian, which deals with the series' main character, Roland Deschain (The King, The Omega, The Almighty, #1 Favorite Character of All Time).

Lastly, Rukia's character's nickname, Black Thirteen, and one of Hitsugaya's, the Blue Bend, refers to a series of thirteen crystal balls, collectively called the "bends o' the rainbow," magical objects of significant importance in the Dark Tower universe. I chose "Blue Bend" specifically for Hitsugaya's affinity for ice. "Black Thirteen" has a bit more importance, as that crystal is tied directly to the Dark Tower itself, the nexus which ties all worlds together. I used such as a nickname for Rukia's character due to the Shrine of Penitence, because of her central importance in Ichigo's group, and because of her being in the Thirteenth Division.

This chapter is being posted in honor of a momentous event in my gaming career (yes, I call it a career). Very, very early this morning (read: midnight), my main Warcraft character, who you may recall goes by the name of Sythius, reached the lofty height of level 70. For those who don't know...don't worry about it. It doesn't hold any significance outside of the game. But those few of you who do play know that this is a big moment for me. It took me several months (to get from 60 to 66, because I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing), and 3 days (to get from 66 to 70, because I did know what I was doing and where I was going), but I did it. And now the fun really starts. I've my eye on an Onyx Nether Drake now...heh-heh.

Again, those who have no idea what any of that means...it holds no actual relevance. I'm just proud of myself. Anyway, as oddball and experimental as this chapter was (and as longwinded as the author's notes were), I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my literary lunacy. Again, if enough of you like it, I'll continue along this story later, perhaps taking Icingdeath and his companions all the way through the Dark Portal into Outland someday (in about seventeen years). If not...well, it was fun to me.

A final note, just in case anyone who plays wants to know. Icingdeath is a Frost Mage (obviously), Twinkle is a Holy Priest, Entreri is a Combat Rogue (swords), Thargor is a Beast Mastery Hunter, and Black Thirteen (she has another name; just not revealed) is a Feral Druid (because that's my specialty).

There are other characters I have planned to enter into the fray, if this chapter strikes your interest. So let me know.

'Til next time, everyone.