In a message dated 7/22/2003 9:55:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
ranma_e@hotmail.com writes:
Satyr's gotta be Happi, Seraph is obviously Ukyou, but Scion....? Hm.
Inheritor? Could be Ranma, but I'm leaning towards Akane, here.
The satyr isn't Happi; it's Ranma. She's something of a woodland
Huh! Okay, I can dig it -- I guess I was being too literal.
Well ... Ranma's cheery demeanour is at least partially caused by the
killing she took part in at Osaka. She finds killing the Hidari to be
immensely satisfying.
Oh. How.... nice.
And then flowed slowly, caressingly, over the rest of her body,
stroking
every inch
of her--
WHACK!
Ow! Oh, c'mon, don't look at me that way. After all, water *loves*
her,right?
Heh, I suppose there are ample opportunities for the story to take a
lemon-flavoured twist. I don't think I'll be going down that route, though.
Lemon writing isn't my bag. :)
Aw, that wasn't lemon, that was just a bit limey.
"'ere, now! Wot's all this, then, guv'nor?"
Not Limey-British, limey-citrus!
I find this image slightly cute and quite amusing, for some reason.
Death itself annoyed by hailstones - you don't really think of the grim
reaper having problems like that, do you?
*I* don't, normally, although I suspect Terry Pratchett does....
That's Ryoga's schtick. Although, he probably won't be needing his - there
isn't much rain aboard a submarine.
Well, when there is, you need a lot more than an umbrella.
This is something I gave a little thought to, and decided to take the
typical storytelling route of ignoring it as a concern. Remember those
liberties I mentioned at the start of the chapter? This is one of them. :)
I can dig it. This isn't a Tom Clancy novel, after all. Although a
R.5 story written by TC... the mind boggles.
Seriously, though, I guess I'm going to run with the assumption that the
Spring's tech is suitably advanced to hide it from most observers.
It helps if they work hard at keeping a low profile. If they stay
away from known areas of naval acitivity by the major powers, and make sure to
run quiet, the ocean is big enough to hide in. My gut instinct is that the LS
gives up most offensive capacity in exchange for stealth. After all, it's not
intended to fight a naval battle, just act as a secure base of operations.
I did decide in the end to have the sub at least vaguely constrained by the
boundaries of reality. I just figured - hey, if Full Metal Panic can have a
giant submarine that launches enormous mechs, I can have one that launches
helicopters.
Right. When it comes to military hardware (aside from mecha), I tend
to forget Anime Physics. Comes from being an engineer, I guess. Of course,
I'm a robotics engineer who keeps a copy of GURPS Mecha in his desk *at work,*
and goes cruising the scrap bins looking for bits and pieces, so who am I to
talk?
"Open the hangar bay doors, Seraph."
"I'm sorry, Ukyou. I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"This is the wrong movie."
Fortunately, I don't think Seraph Wing knows any songs.
<snerk> Jamie Wild did a *marvelous* 2001/Ranma crossover, with
"real" physics (Jamie, being a submariner, really captures the *feel* of living
inside a sealed tin can), where HAL sings a different song while being shut down:
"Ya pa paaa, yaaa paaaa paaaaaaaaa....."
The designers didn't want Seraph Wing poking around into deeply classified
files. He has access to basic information on the layout of the sub, and
some information about the personnel aboard, but he doesn't know everything.
I suppose it becomes a question, then, of just how much Seraph may be
able to overcome his own limitations. And just where his loyalties lie. If
he has to make a choice between Ukyou and Phoenix, who's he going to choose?
Ryoga has already demonstrated, though, that he's built things into Seraph
Wing that weren't part of the original design.
Heh heh heh....
"I say we nuke the broad from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Somebody (Benares?) already did Rana-v-Predator. Anyone ever do
Ranma-v-Aliens?
That would be a genuinely frightening crossover. I'm not certain if I would
want to read it. :D
"The good news is, those of us with Jusenkyo curses are safe from
being implanted -- activating the curse seems to kill the parasites. The bad news
is, we're still edible...."
"His kind"? Either I missed something a few chapters back, or Happi
has unexplored depths yet to be plumbed.
Happosai is a Tatsujin watcher. Part of that immortal border-race. See
chapter 13.
Whups. Gotta re-read.
"You've got nothing to be sorry about. My old life was so ...
-ordinary-.
I went to school, I studied, I came home, I trained. I've been doing
that as long as I can remember. It was boring."
In the words of Konstantin Bothari: "I *like* being bored."
And the words of that Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."
I made a fanfic-character version of that one time:
"May you live in interesting plotlines.
May you come to the attention of talented authors.
May you undergo massive amounts of character development."
If only Nabiki had taught her financial investment instead of the trade of
a
thief, she would be very wealthy. :)
Okay, if you don't fill in the backstory on that little hint at some
point, I'm going to be *very* cross with you.
Or did it get mentioned during the Great Osaka Break-In? Darn it, I'm
offline and my archived copies aren't on this laptop....
Well, damn. She *does* know, and she's been deliberately keeping
Akane
(and all her ancestors) in the dark. Just what the heck does she think
she'sdoing,
anyway?
She -thinks- she's protecting them.
Man, she really *doesn't* learn, does she? You'd think that, after
nine hundred years, while innocence may be bliss, ignorance is definitely
lethal.
Yeah, but what happens if you don't do *something* about, um, whatever
it is that you Dragons are *supposed* to be doing... whatever that is.
Dammit, I hate not knowing what's really going on....
I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. :)
Okay, now, you're not Ranma, you're just *writing* Ranma. Keep track,
it's important.
Besides, you *are* going to tell me, eventually, when its Dramatically
Appropriate, aren't you?
I'm gonna go out on a limb, here: the sword. ISTR it had an
"amplifying" effect
on her obsessions 900 years ago, too. Being kept seperate from the sword
maybe
letting her rebalance a bit. But even if so, the sword is obviously not
the
*source* of
her obsession, just something to keep her from thinking about awkward
questions.
Like, how has she lived so long, unless she's like Ranme herself?
I'm not going to answer this, because I can't think of a way to answer it
without giving too much away. I'll have to ask for your patience - all will
become clear(er) in later chapters.
'sokay. Half my C&C consists of thinking out loud, anyway. It's
interesting to go back later and see how many of my speculations were near the
mark.
Ranma's vengeful side is awfully compelling. She isn't even thinking about
Akane's well-being right now.
To mangle a quote from Harry Potter: "That girl has *got* to get her
priorities in order."
Angel squeezed off round after round into the dragon, taking shaky steps
backwards as the shots seemed to have no effect whatsoever upon the
creature's advance. For all the good the gun did her, she might as well
have been throwing mud.
She was kneeling when Ranma saw her -- how is she taking steps back?
She stood up. :)
Well, you didn't *mention* that. (:)
-I do not know. The storm's dissipation should have sped his approach.-
Hammer and Anvil, IIRC, were the twins I suspected of being Hidari, or
similar. hmmm....
The plot thickens.
This plot gets any thicker, I'll be able to walk on it.
It was a bullet. Her bullet. Completely flattened.
Uh....oh.
No need to panic. Just Seraph Wing's biokinetic plating repelling the
bullet, as it did in chapter 9.
I COMPLETELY failed to make that connection. I honestly thought that
Ranma had caught the bullet, squished it, and thrown it back, just to play
with Angel's head. In retrospect, of course, it becoes blindingly obvious.
*This* is the moment Ukyou shows up, and I missed it completely. Gah.....
Heh heh. I'm very pleased you caught this. I'm such a fan of the Night's
Dawn stuff, I simply had to put a reference in some place or other. It
seemed only fitting to put in a passing ref to a series that entertained me
so much.
No Joshua Calvert in this story, though. :)
<imagines "Lagrange" Calvert trying to seduce this Ranma. Takes an
aspirin and goes for a lie-down>
"I bet you didn't think you'd see me again, not after what you did last
time," Ukyo said, a deep sense of satisfaction dripping from her words as
she admired the look of utter shock upon Ranma's face. "Well, I'm here
to
repay the favour."
Cue _Highlander_ soundtrack.
Ranma has sufficiently annoyed me that I'm almost rooting for Ukyou
here.
I'd at least like to see Ranma taken down a peg or two -- she might learn
something.
Good, good. Ranma has a dark side, and as such shouldn't be automatically
treated as the good guy here. It's one of the questions I want people to
ask - which side is in the right, here?
Well, Ukyou is obviously being used, probably for most, if not all, of
her life. Akane's just trying to stay alive, and figure out WTF is going on.
Ranma is trying to keep Akane alive, but has serious impulse/anger
management issues and what looks suspiciously like emotional crippling and an obsession
as a coping mechanism -- not to mention a psychotic streak a mile wide.
I just can't believe that Phoenix is the good guys, although I *do*
believe that most of the rank-and-file of the organization honestly believes
they're on the side of the angels. Which, given Ranma-baka's behavior, is an
easy position to understand.
"Ukyo?" Ranma asked, the sound more a stunned exclamation of surprise
than
a question.
"I see my cut has not affected your voice."
"That's right. And here you thought I was a defenseless medic, ready for
you to cut up? Wrong. You're not getting anywhere near her."
Ah, righteous indignation.
A staple of the Ranma 1/2 universe if ever there were one.
Justified in this case, though. Ranma killing Angel would be like me
killing some kid for shooting me with a paintball gun.
"My mother couldn't fight back, and you killed her. But that's all
changed now, hasn't it, Ranma? Now I can fight back, and it's your turn
to die.
You're not going to murder anyone else."
Her *mother*? But the dragon Kuonji was male. And Ukyo's never
mentioned her
*father,* that I recall. I smell a setup, here. And I think I know where,
and who....
Ukyo has mentioned her mother before - early in the story, when she first
met Akane. She has always had an obsession for killing Ranma to avenge her
mother's death. However, dying so many times has scattered her memories
somewhat, and I don't think she has the full story herself anymore.
Yep, it's always been about her mother. I just keep wondering if her
father's going to get mentioned -- his complete absence from her memories
seems odd.
And Kuonji wasn't a dragon - Kuonji was a Tatsujin. And Kuonji was that
Tatsujin's first name. And I'm pretty sure I was careful enough to never
mention the gender of that character.
Hm. Gotta re-read. I may have just leaped to the conclusion that
Kuonji was Ukyou's father. It seemed so perfect -- Kuonji has a kid with a human
woman, kills said woman and frames Ranma, turning Ukyou into his instrument
of, um, whatever 'his' grand scheme is.
I know what you're thinking, but Ukyo's parents are not who you think they
are.
Well, drat. Hm. Could Ukyou be the *original* Kuonji? But that
doesn't fit either, unless Ukyou's memory has been *really* tampered with.
It must have been, though, because when Ukyou and Ranma first met,
Ranma couldn't have been much more than 16-18 -- when would he have had any
opportunity to kill Ukyou's mother?
There are some pieces missing, yet. I just can't get Kayoko's story
to mesh with Ukyou's actions. The element needed to bridge the gap is still
hidden. I can sort-of feel the shape of it, vaguely, but there are still too
many unkown variables. Ukyou's obviously been lied to, but was Kayoko's story
completely accurate? Or truthful? This is like trying to assemble a puzzle in
the dark.
*Someone* knows the Whole Truth -- my money is on whomever is the
ultimate source of Hunter's orders. Now we just have to find a way to beat it out
of him/her/it....
Uh....oh. Ranma wasn't the target of this op, Akane was. And H&A are
ringers
inside Alpha, working directly for whoever's pulling Hunter's strings...
Kuonji?
But what does the Phoenix boss want with Akane? Just what were those
test
results about? I suddenly have this nasty feeling the Phoenix hasn't been
trying to
kill off the Tendo line all this time -- they've been *pruning* it, waiting
for Akane to
show up.
But if Phoenix *does* get Akane, what can they *do* with her?
Akane was a target of the op, but not the only target. Multiple goals were
achieved.
Hm. Ranma's still alive, so that wasn't it. Testing Ukyou probably
wasn't, since they knocked her flat and left her to Ranma's not-so-tender
mercies (and Ranma's likely to burn Ukyo and scatter the ashes, this time). They
got Akane, and saw her whip up that storm... what else did they accomplish?
Your other thoughts are very insightful, but I shall make no comment on
them, because I don't want to give anything away one way or the other. :)
Awww... Be interesting to see how right/wrong I was, eventually.
Ukyo's mental state has yet to be determined. Even she doesn't know what's
going on inside her head.
But "The Shadow Knows -- mwahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA<choke> <wheez> <
cough> <gasp>"
First rule of assassination: kill the assassins. I guess the first
rule of creating super soliders is to always install an off switch.
Someone has decided
they don't need Ukyo anymore.
That is how it would seem...
Okay, you're being coy again. But it's the only explanation that
makes sense. After all, who besides Phoenix could... have... Hrmm.
Huh! Maybe *that* explains the Leviathan Spring -- I don't see any
way that Ranma could attack a submerged submarine. It would make for one
place >that is *totally* secure from her.
You're right about the Leviathan Spring. However, chapter 1 tells us that
Ranma only freezes water when she's wearing her cloak. So, it's not
-totally- inconceivable.
Yeah, but can she swim as fast as a submarine?
And if you want to keep Ranma out of the Leviathan Spring, you don't load
her into a helicopter and bring her aboard, now, do you?
Well, there's a difference between letting her mount an attack on her
terms, and bringing her aboard in restraints that *should* hold her. But I
take your point.
But first, Ukyo and Ranma are both going to have to overcome their own
respective conditioning... and that's going to make the big fight scene in
this
chapter look like a Sunday brunch.
Very true. Your comments are pretty well on the mark. Sooner or later
Ranma is going to discover Akane isn't where she had been left, and at that
point she's going to want answers. I'm hopeful that chapter 16, "Alone at
Last", will shed some more light on the situation and clear up a few of the
questions you've raised.
It's very gratifying to see someone getting so much out of this chapter, and
I'd like to thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I
greatly appreciate it, and I hope my reply has been of some use to you.
Oh, it's been a blast. Now I just have to wait until 16 comes out <
whimper>.....