Subject: [FFML] Re: [Love Hina][Surreal] Sky and Shore
From: Brian Randall
Date: 5/30/2002, 3:21 AM
To: DB Sommer
CC: ffml@anifics.com


DB Sommer wrote:
Oh dear, surreal by you. ^_^ Well, here we go:

	Yeah, me of all people. Imagine that. ;)

[Counted Days]

Year one had been a failure. An abysmal failure.

It had stopped halfway. Who had ever heard of a year that just seized up and
stopped like that.

	Chronos: This is... odd. You really ARE a screw up!

	Keitaro: HEY!

Year two had been more hopeful.

It made it to June.

	Chronos: ...no, not good enough.

"I think so," he said at length. "I'm not sure, yet. I might
have gotten myself a partner. I'd like that."

Kietaro: I wouldn't.

Seta: You have the same choice in it you always have.

Keitaro: *Sigh* That's what I thought.

	Eeeee....no.

[Meddler and Warrior]

Well, I guess who they are.

	Fairly easy, I suppose.

"Alcohol dulls all pains."

Tell that to your liver. :)

	Being a non-corporeal being helps in those areas.

	After all, like likens to like, and Mitsune is a... spirit? ;)

"And the rest?"

"The sky, the shore... the dragon palace.

Mutsumi: I was thinking more along the lines of a Turtle Palace.

Kitsune: No one was asking you.

	See, this amuses me because in the original legend of Taro Urashima, 
Otohime (sea princess) was the turtle that led Taro to the Dragon 
Palace.

	So in a roundabout way...

	...that's exactly right!

heavens. Who is to know the ultimate conclusion?"

God: THAT WOULD BE ME.

	Motoko: You don't exist in this fic! It's a prelude to Compass Points!

The swordswoman stiffened, one hand dropping to her sheathed blade.

My, stiff and sheath used in the same sentence and not in a lemon. Will
wonders neevr cease? :)

	No, your comments and sexual innuendo restore the status quo, thus 
ensuring that the sun continues to orbit the Earth as it has for 
countless centuries. Anyone who thinks otherwise obviously needs to 
be taken to the edge of the planet and thrown off.

"Oh-ho! You think that if the right cards are played, he could be another
Sakata Kintoki, do you?"

The swordswoman dropped her hand from her weapon and blushed darkly.
"Goldenboy

Oh? Can't get that one out of your mind. eh?

	Actually, (and this might be interesting to some people) Kintaro Oe 
is the Goldenboy in the anime, based on the kami... well, the 
goldenboy. Originally he was Sakata Kintoki, and was quite a hero. 
Used a tree as a club against giant evil spiders, and if I remember 
correctly, ensured his hero status by slaying an aspect of the Fates.

	Of course, that entails problems all its own... anyone who knows more 
about Sakata Kintoki is more than welcome to enlighten me, he and 
Ida-Ten are my current area of study. :)

But the more he did it, the more the movement became a relaxing manta,
and the sound a soothing whisper. It wasn't until the tip of the shovel
hit something solid that he paused, realizing that more hours had passed
since he had become accustomed to digging. The sun had passed behind a
stand of tall palm trees, giving him shade, and a cool breeze rustled
his tank top, making him wonder as

at (I think you wanted there)

	Correct.

 > He looked up sharply, smiling when he saw the older man. "I think I did,"
he admitted.

Keep it away from Sarah. She'll just break t over Kei-chan's head. :)

	Which would be interesting, in this fic.

"Alright, then why don't we see what you found?"

More ancient turtle ruins?

	Implied, but then, the secondary implication there is Mutsumi (the 
Sea Princess), and all that _that_ entails.

He nodded, shifting his grip on the shovel and carefully scooping more
sandy earth to one side. A small wooden chest was revealed, with brass
fixings.

chest, with brass fixings, was revealed (sounds better to me)

	Good suggestion.

"Many things," the old man said quietly. "At the moment, nothing. Were
you ever given a box?"

Keitaro: Once. A friend named Pandora gave it to me. Things didn't turn out
too well, though.

	Interesting parable, Mr. Sommer, if you consider Tamago.

"If 'this'? I cannot spot what changed." She blinked, raising a hand and
tossing the cigarette away from her as a tear rolled down her cheek.
"But it was something, and something, I think, that was not meant to be.
Were things otherwise.... But our role in this play is nearly done, and
I'm left taking care of a house of meddlers."

Heh. Such a cruel fate.

	Especially with THAT lot.

Attempting to get into the college for so many years... if he had gotten
in the first time, then he would be nearly done by then.

Sad but true.

	I wonder that he never makes this realization on his own.

"I know what you feel, Kei-kun," she said, taking another step closer to
him. "I failed, too."

Again. So much alike. *Sigh*

	For a reason, here.

He blinked, shaking his head, and was about to refuse, but.... "I... I...
I don't want to go home yet. Well... okay, Mutsumi-chan. Let's run away
together."

Heh. First Naru, now Mutsumi. He'll run away with anyone, the slut. :)

	Well, the idea is that this is what he was meant to do.

	In other words, Mutsumi was the promised girl, and events were 
changed to make it Naru (I seem to have forgotten the metafiction 
tag), and this is expoloring what would happen if someone tried to 
change it BACK given what else was set into motion.

Before she could say anything else, the animal, too, crumbled into ash,
fading into nothingness before her very eyes.

Oops.

	Or maybe it's not such an oops in the grand scheme of things.

"Nothing to worry about, I assure you."

It was for the best.

	Exactly.

"I think you don't see everything that there is on that issue," a fourth
voice said, this one from a darker-skinned young woman as she too
appeared, sitting on the peak of the roof just behind the swordswoman.
"What harm as

has

	Drat.

Heaving a pained sigh, the swordswoman shook her head. "It pains

two 'pains' close together. I'd drop the first or change it to something
else.

	True enough. Will do.

"Yes," the woman leaning against him sighed. "So many of us in one
place... we make it less real, I think. It is not always a good thing."

True. The area was so very dreamlike for a good portion of the series.

	The mist in the anime helped add to that, especially.

	In the manga....

"It wasn't," the Kitsune assured her. "But I'm not sure where it went
wrong, either."

Where it went wrong, or is it merely changed? That is the question.

	In this context:

	The story was supposed to be about Keitaro and Mutsumi. Akamatsu 
changed it to be about Keitaro and Naru, and then set other things 
in motion to endure that it would end that way.

	Someone then changed it back to the way it should have been, but only 
meddled with Keitaro, not bothing to change the other factors. Which 
couldn't be changed, as they WERE the other factors.

"Motherhood may not suit you."

My, how foreboding.

	One would think. :)

But the building before him was not the building he remembered. Casting
about, he realized that the other buildings, too, had changed. The name
of the street, the address... those things were the same, but it wasn't
the home he had known.

Oh dear. Has he been gone for so very long?

	Nearly directly from the legend of Taro Urashima.

With trembling hands, he opened the box, and vanished, nothing more than
a crane feather drifting down to mark that he had ever been there.

Oops. Didn't see that coming.

	Can't imagine many would, unless they read the original legend....

"Would you undo it, so easily?

think you can drop that comma

	Done.

"A truce, where all of us may win the game, if on the surface it would be
the dreamer who won."

How devious.

	And thus I spite Ken Akamatsu and say that it can be otherwise ANYWAY. ;)

This is (somewhat) the result of a conversation with Edward Simons. One
half of it is my impression of the series, the other is Mr. Simons's
commentary on what the names of the various characters meant. Now if
anyone understands this, I'll be impressed. If you can guess who Suu is
the daughter of, I'll be impressed even more.

Nope. But I'm not up on my Eastern Mythology, so I think I can be forgiven.

	Easily. I expect that three people who read this will ever understand 
this in its entirety. One of them is me, because I wrote it, and the 
second is Ginrai, because he asked.

	I look forward to meeting the third, whoever that may be. ;)

Nice work. A bit hard to follow, but it had to be that way, and I understood
what was going on, or at least I think I did. :)

	There were a few levels. I expect hardly anyone will actually SEE the 
metafiction level without being told about it. Then there's the.... 
Bah. It's pretentious, let's leave it at that. :/

	And thank you _very_ much for C&Cing what no one else has dared to 
touch on, Mr. Sommer. I owe you, but I haven't SEEN the new Tenchi 
series yet, so.... :/

	Suffice to say that while not a CP fic, it certainly ties in with them.

D.B. Sommer
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