FIC: Pinny, Slaying [Revised, 1/?]

[Eric Jablow]

Okay. This is more of a story than the fragment I posted earlier.

Pinny, Slaying
by Eric Jablow
Part One

Synopsis: Willow's spell called all the slayers in
every dimension, even when one of the dimensions is
missing.

Rating: PG. Some comic-panel type violence.
Some Victorian sexism.

Note: I am using British spellings here to keep with
the flavour of the original source. The source is in
the public domain; try guessing what it is, and where
the slang comes from.

---

Note: I am using British spellings here to keep with
the flavour of the original source. The source is in
the public domain; try guessing what it is, and where
the slang comes from.

---

"Why are you undulating so much? One might think you
were talking to a boy you wanted to attract, instead of
your father." Pin's father Octavian was a humourless
bureaucrat in the Bureau of Defence; he expected
nothing from his daughter but obedience.

"I am sorry, Father. I don't know what got into me,"
said Pin.

"Nothing can get into you, daughter. You're not built
for it." Octavian turned away from her and teased open
another fold of the Thintown Post. It was a slow
process; a 135° angle isn't the best shape to open up
the folds of a broadline.

"May I help you, Father?" asked Pin.

"Broadlines are for men, daughter. You don't need to
worry about the news of the day." Octavian was not the
most civil of octagons.

Octavian struggled with an inner fold for another
minute, and then Pin finally lost her patience. As her
father pulled back to breathe, she swung around him and
teased the broadline open with her tip.

"Daughter! How dare you defy me. Go to your quarters."

"If you'd hire an iso servant, you wouldn't have this
problem."

"Do not tell me how to act in my household. Now go."

"Yes, Father."

---

Pin spent the next two hours in her room drumming
against her walls and whistling her Peace-cry loud
enough to wake the dead. Finally, she heard a tap on
her door, and she slid it open with her tip.

"Daughter. I am not pleased with you. I spend two hours
at tea with Vicky, and you get into trouble."

"So what, mother. No one will ever be pleased with
me. I'm just a girl. I'm supposed to get into trouble."

"You've been fighting with your father again. Pin, why
do you do that?"

"I would rather he be annoyed with me than have him
ignoring me."

"You will find, daughter, that each alternative is
poor."

"Will he ever take us seriously?"

"No, daughter. That is one of the facts of life. Men
think that because we have no area we are brainless. We
can be of no interest to them, except that we are
dangerous because we are sharp, sharper than even the
most bestial iso. And were any of us to persuade them
otherwise, we would be clapped in gaol for our
temerity."

"Are all middle-polys like Father? Is that what I have
to look forward to?"

"Almost all, Pinny. Some rare ones see more than that;
Dougherty, your friend Doe's father was gallant toward
me when we dined there last."

"Don't call her Doe. She's not a 'Doe'--she's just a
do's daughter. Call her 'Lil', or 'Lil Doe' if you
must."

"I'm sorry, daughter. But try not to anger your
father."

"Why doesn't he hire an iso to tease open his
broadlines for him anyway?"

"He says that his work is so secret no iso is allowed
to know what he's doing."

"That's bent."

"Don't let him hear you say that."

"So, what do I have to look forward to? He'll find a
non for me to marry; if he's lucky, he'll find a
dec. And Lil's father will find a trid or higher. And
they will ignore us, if we're lucky."

"You're right. Life's bent."

"Please go, mother. I will try not to bother him in the
future. It will be good practice."

---

Around midnight, Pin had a terrible nightmare. Strange
shapes moved in ways she could not comprehend, changed
shape in ways she considered impossible, and had
strange colours she had never experienced before. She
could only think of them in names that were but rumours
to her: pink, brown, red, and gold. Brutal sounds were
in her dream; gruff and guttural war cries, screams,
and moans, and many of the war cries were distinctly
feminine! And then, she heard a woman speak in a voice
of power: "Are you ready to be strong?" A moment later,
Pin's dream voice replied "Yes." The woman's voice
continued, "And so you are Chosen." The dream ended,
and Pin fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

End of Part One.

As you may have guessed, this is a crossover between
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer," created by Joss Whedon, and
"Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, by A. Square,"
by Edwin Abbott Abbott, published in 1884.

[Eric Jablow]

Pinny, Slaying
by Eric Jablow
Part Two

Synopsis: Willow's spell has chosen Pin, daughter of
Octavian Octagon, of Thinton, Flatland. She does not
know what that means, but uncanny things are happening
to her. Will she be able to hide her changes from the
males of Flatland?

Rating: PG-13 for Victorian sexism.

---

A few taps on her door roused Pin in the morning; she
called out "I'm awake."

"Young miss, the family is meeting for breakfast," said
Penfield, the family's faithful 40°-er.

"I'll be out in a moment, Penfield. Thank you, and
tell Mother."

"As you wish."

Pin fnally looked at her surroundings, and gave a
start. Her eyesight had improved during the night.
She could see individual dust dots in the corners of
her room, and she could see slight bends in the walls
where she had ponged her old toy disk at them. Why,
she might even able to discern angles without feeling,
like high-gons! What else had happened to her during
the night?

Pin moved to her door and slid it open; her father had
built the house with the new style of safe doors that
slid into the gap between two structural lines. This
allowed a woman to open a door without any chance of
leaving her room and poking a hole in an unwary
resident. The door opened effortlessly, and it crashed
at speed into its stop; a fog of dust dots wafted from
the opening. Pin shook a moment; only a running start
should have been able to do that.

She joined her parents and her younger brother Norval
at the breakfast; Penfield had mounted the frames that
would allow them to eat without resting their food on
the the servants had placed their meals on the eating
nooks, and two servants were there to set up the pairs
of line segments Octavian and Norval would use as
eating channels.

Pin scooped her usual amount of sugar into her tea;
while she stirred it, she amused herself by listening
to her father's standard lecture:

"Norval, will you please pay attention in school today?
You cannot hope for advancement if you do not care for
your studies. You must pay attention to your teachers;
even though they are Squares, they deserve your
attention," and so on. Pin knew Norval; he wasn't a
bigot; he was just a bit slow, and he much preferred
recess to classwork.

Father finally finished his lecture: "And if you don't
concentrate on your studies, I shall be forced to hire
Sully Square to tutor you again." Sully was a
nearly-deaf retired teacher Square; his past visits,
his overly-loud voice, and Norval's unconscious habit
of reading his books aloud while she evaded their
notice had taught her much.

Now, Father rotated toward her: "What have you been
doing to the house?"

"The door was a little stuck. I tugged too hard on it."
It was a wonder that Father could ever finish his meal
of arcs and dots with all his ranting.

"Women--unable to even open a door correctly." SHe
ignored his rants as best she could and finished her
meal. When she came North for air, Father had turned to
his broadline, and she stole glances at him. Father
had the habit of trailing the part of the broad line he
had read over the side of the eating frame; while He
was had his eye only on the news, and while Norval
blew his food around its cup, she looked at the visible
part of the broadline. With wonder, she realized she
could make out the dots and dashes of Flatland writing
even at a distance, and she tried to use the little
knowledge of reading she had managed to pick up.

The first story was about the military budget; she
had no interest in that and turned away to whistle some
gossip to Norval. Norval's laughter led Father to
complain to him again. She turned back to the
broadline and saw another story; she made it out as
about a Heptagon in town having died of unnatural
causes. Could she be right? Was her knowledge of
reading good enough? She decided to check.

"Mother, I'm thinking about going for a glide with Lil
today."

"That's nice, dear."

Norval piped up with, "I wish I could go gliding all
day like you." Father interrupted, "Be careful,
daughter. There's a rogue iso at loose, or even a
scalene." Pin was gratified that her reading was
correct, but irritated that Father hadn't told her to
stay home and be safe.

Penfield returned to remind them that it was time for
Father to go to work and for Norval to go to school.
As they headed for the Men's Door, Pin spoke to
Penfield: "Give Cook my thanks. The spiced dot soup
was very tasty." "He shall appreciate that, Miss."

Only Mother was left in the room. "What are you going
to do now, Pinny?"

"I think I'm going to pong for a while."

---

Pin slid her door closed and took a moment to take
stock of herself. Like all but the most trusting of
Flatland's women, she knew that the world was
unremittingly hostile to her; she existed only on
sufferage, and only so men could have their
descendants. And now she had confirmed that she could
read a broadline correctly, and could see the news of
the world as men learned it. She was a spy, and she
knew how spies were treated when caught.

And then, there was her dream. She would have
dismissed it as a hallucination, but she had changed
after it. Her sight and strength had increased; was
she in fact chosen? And for what? Were these changes
accompanied by others? She decided to experiment.

Pin teased a disk off her toy shelf and pushed it to
the center of the room. She moved East and alongside
of it, and then she slammed West into it. It shot into
the wall much faster than she was used to, and it made
a satisfying "Pong!" noise. Then it struck her at the
midpoint, knocking her a few feet to the right; her
body made a "Ping!" noise. A bit breathless, she
waited until she stopped vibrating; she felt no ill
effects.

She tried again more carefully. "Pong!" "Ping!" The
sensation was actually enjoyable. She developed a
rhythm, sometimes changing speeds, sometimes making
hard strikes and scooting out of the way so she could
switch walls. A half-hour later, she stopped the disk
and giggled in helpless laughter.

"I have speed; do I have precision too? Let's try
angles." She shot the disk off at an angle to the
wall, and then she glided North to angle it back. She
did lose control the first couple of times, but then
she learned the appropriate rhythm. She soon was
gliding around the room bouncing the disk wherever she
wanted.

"I wonder what would happen if I thwacked it." She put
the disk just West of her aft when Penfield knocked on
her door. "Miss Pin, Miss Doe is here to see you."

"Thank you Penfield." She slid her door open. "Lil!"

End of Part Two

Note 1: Flatland women are not taught to read or to think
logically. But, "A. Square", narrator of the original
book, always wondered what would happen were a woman to
learn that secret.

Note 2: Flatland has gravity, but it is very weak.
Everything falls South slowly. Permanent tables would
waste space, however, because the area below them would
be completely unusable.

[Eric Jablow]

Post by Eric Jablow
Pinny, Slaying
by Eric Jablow
Part Two

Some typing glitches; I may need to post a
slightly-revised version. Sorry.

[Eric Jablow]

Pinny, Slaying
by Eric Jablow
Part Three

Synopsis: Willow's spell has chosen Pin, daughter of
Octavian Octagon, of Thinton, Flatland. She likes the
changes that are happening to her, but she worries that
she will be killed if any male finds out, and she does
not know what she has been chosen for. What will she
tell her oldest friend?

Rating: PG-13 for Victorian sexism and a
boringly-graphic romance scene. That is, the graphics
are boring.

---
"Hi, Pin. Can I--"

Pin spoke up before Lil could finish her sentence.
"Come in! She backed away from the door, and Lil swung
her way in. Penfield backed out of the way; he was
used to the enthusiasm of young women. Pin slid the
door closed.

"Ick! What have you been doing, Pin. This room is all
dotty." She looked at Pin. "You look
different. You're almost shining."

"Um. Well. I was a little too enthusiastic with the
ponging."

"I can see that. Seriously, you look different. Are
you well?"

"I'm not sure." Pin gestured toward the door.

"Um, right. You sure you're okay?"

"No."

"Wait." Lil moved to Pin's right side and felt her,
hard.

"Lil!"

"You're still straight."

"Of course, I am." Pin's voice drifted off. She had
worried about that a little.

"Would you like to go gliding?"

"Yeah."

---

Pin and Lil glided through Thinton with unconscious
grace. Only the closest of friends could have have
moved and sung in such unison. Their peace-cries
harmonized perfectly; they swayed togther as they
moved, never going out of parallel. Pin had five
container loops stuck to her side, two of tea, two of
dot curry, and one with pong disks; Lil was surprised
that Pin could maintain her speed.

They headed East towards the outskirts of town; Thinton
was much larger North-to-South than East-to-West.
Soon, they found themselves at a local play-area;
they waved at some mothers who were seting up tiny polys on
L-carriers.

They finally found an empty picnic line at the edge of
the play area. Lil pried the carriers off Pin's side,
dumping them onto the line. They sat atop the line,
and poked their tips through the tea loops to drink
them. It took them a minute to empty the loops.

"Okay, Pin. Give."

"It's weird. I must have been really angry yesterday,
or it must have been bad dots for dinner. I ended up
having the strangest dream. There were shapes and
blobs moving in ways I couldn't comprehend, and
screaming war cries. They looked eerie--I think they
were in color! And some of the battle cries were
women's voices."

"Color? No one's seen color for the last thousand
years."

"I don't know what else I can call it, but it felt like
red, brown, blue, and gold. I don't know which was
which!"

"You'd better not tell anyone. They'll put you away.
I had a distant ancestor, a great great
nth-great-uncle, I think, who went mad and was
imprisoned for life."

"Oh, I have lots more secrets. And then one woman's
voice asked me a question: 'Are you ready to be
strong?' I hate being a weak woman, powerless, and
ignored. And Father has started to look for a husband
for me; I'll never be able to do anything."

Lil nodded. "I know Mine is trying to match me up
with Tredegar Trid. Do you know him? The only thing
he talks about is his ancestry. He's a prig, but he's
a trid, and that's what's important to Dorchester."

"Mom likes Dorchester. She says he's courtly."

"Oh, the old do would never dream of insulting anyone,
woman, iso, eq, or pent. That's only because they're
meaningless to him. Your mosther and mine are just
women; being rude to them would be like being rude to a
raindrop."

"So, in my dream, I said 'Yes.' And then that voice
told me, 'And so you are Chosen.'"

"Chosen for what?"

"I don't know. To fight like the women in my dream? I
mean, I'd like to be able to fight, to wipe the smiles
off those smug polys, but they'll kill me out of
hand."

"It's like Joan."

"Joan?"

"You don't knoww the story of Joan the Arc?"

"Uh-uh."

"Two thousand years ago or so, Joan was the daughter of
the Chief Circle, but she was deformed. Instead of
being a straight line, she was a perfect semicircle.
They measured her every way they could, but she had no
distortions."

"What did she do?"

"They didn't let her do anything. They were to
superstitious to kill her, but they had her watched at
all times. She was a prisoner in her owh home.
Eventually, she escaped. She was a very persuasive
speaker, with all the power of her father. She told
the women of her vision of a future for them, free of
discrimination, insults, and subservience, and she led
them in war. Tens of thousands of polys and women
died, and eventually she was betrayed by an iso
secretary."

"They killed her."

"It was terrible. They nailed her to the Circular
Temple, and they forced her sisters to watch her starve
to death. And that is why no woman now is ever named
Joan."

"I don't know what I'm chosen for, or if even that was
just a meaningless hallucination, but I feel that way
myself."

"So do I, and all the women who can think."

"Well, I woke up in the morning, and I found that I had
changed. My eyesight was much better; I could see the
dust dots in the corner, the slight imperfections in
the walls too. And at breakfast, I could see the dots
and dashes of Father's broadline from across the room.
I could decipher one of the stories as about a murder,
and--" Lil's high-pitched whistle interrupted her.

"Lil looked around, saw that no one else was around,
and whispered, "You can read? How?"

"A little. Norval is a little slow, a little loud, and
he speaks his lessons as he reads them. And I can hide
like nobody's business."

"Your are the most devious line I've ever met."

"And I was able to get dad to confirm the story at
breakfast."

"You tricked him, I hope."

"He'll never figure it out."

"After we were done, I went back to my room and ponged
for a while. My first hit bounced the disk off the
wall so hard it nearly bounced me into the East wall!
I'm a lot stronger than I used to be. And I could
angle the disk anywhere I wanted. I spent the morning
aiming for marks."

"Something is weird. Do you want to show me?"

"After lunch. Cook made us a nice curry."

---

After lunch, they disposed of the trash and got Pin's
disks. The moved to an open area, Lil moved 20 feet
away from Pin, and Pin pushed a disk hard at Lil.

"Oof!" Lil bounced back a couple of feet.

"Are you okay?"

"You. Weren't. Kidding." Lil set the disk near her
aft, called "Here comes!", and swung at it.

The disk would have passed 20 feet ahead of Pin, but
she scooted very fast and caught up before it passed
her; she blocked it back to Lil.

"You're fast!"

They eventually worked out a system where Lil could take
running hits at the disk and Pin would block them
back. Soon, they brought all three disks into play,
juggling the disks between them.

Then, a gang of adolescent hexs and pents ran through
theire area. The lead hex picked off one of the
disksand started dribbling it in front of him, away
from Pin.

"I'm tired of this," cried Pin, and she took off in
pursuit. Lil followed. Pin dove south of the running
polys, crying a loud peace-cry, caught up with the
thief, and suddenly moved North, turning to hit him
broadside. He tumbled Northwest, and the disk started
falling South, where Lil scooped it up. The hex
skittered to a halt, and his gang looked on in
confusion.

Lil joined Pin to the gang's South, and Pin hissed at
them, "This ends here, you little thieves."

"Why you--"

Pin turned her aft on them, and so did Lil. The gang
looked at the sharp points, their leader cursed, and
they headed off. The two of them slowly drifted to
retrieve the other disks; neither felt like
continuing. When they returned to the picnic line, a
rainstorm suddenly hit. They hid under the line.

"Do you think they'll tell anyone?" asked Lil.

"Not today, but eventually. I just don't care any
more. I am so tired of the insults."

"I know. Thanks."

"Did I hurt you at all?"

"No. You did surprise me."

"I surprised me too."

"That was fun, though." The two friends looked out at
the rain storm.

"About another half-hour, I guess."

"Anyone else left?"

"Just us."

"Pin, can you teach me?"

"To be strong?"

"I'll just have to learn that myself. To read."

"I'm not very good at it; it's not like I can practice.
All I have are the bits of Norval's lessons."

"I just want to know what really's going on in the
world around us. They're all our enemies, you know."

"I know. I'll try. We'll have to figure out how to
get something to read from."

"We'll find a way. I'm the second-most sneaky woman I
know."

"It's a deal."

"And maybe I can teach you something too." Lil moved
ahead of Pin, flipped around, brought her mouth dot to
Pin's, and pressed into her hard. After a moment, she
let go.

"What was that?"

"A kiss, silly. Was it good for you?"

"Y-yes. But why?"

"Because I wanted to. Do you want to do it again?"

"Um."

Lil did it again.

---

Note 1: Flatlanders recognize each other in two ways.
Upper-class polygons, Squares and higher, use sight to
discern angles. Lower class polygons and women
typically feel angles. More specialized purposes, such
as determining regularity, require calipers and other
measurement tools.

Note 2: No one in Flatland knows why mobile objects such
as people are subject to gravity, while fixed objects
such as houses, picnic lines, playground L-carriers,
and shops remain in place. At least, "A. Square" never
mentioned it.