This I had to get off my chest. Comments welcome, of course.
   I may do more with this, I may not. A thought though, for those reading
this; do original manga continuties and fanfic continuities always 
conflict, or may they complement each other?

---

   Anyone who had looked into Skuld's room that night would have seen a
very unusual sight.
   The young goddess knelt on the floor, deep in concentration. This was
not so unusual in itself; often she could be seen knelt over a blueprint
for her latest mecha, musing over the absolute best way to increase its
efficiency.
   Tonight, however, was not for mechs. There was, instead of a blueprint,
two ordinary Polaroid photographs, one on her right, one on her left.
   The righthand Polaroid was a picture of two young men, taken inside
the temple. One was the mortal Keiichi Morisato. Keiichi was looking up
proudly at the real focus of the picture, the younger (though much, much
taller) young man beside him. The young man--the boy really, though a bit
older than Skuld--looked something like Keiichi, except for unusually
light hair; he wore a shirt reading "Princeton Naked Rugby." He for his
part staring straight at the camera (at the photographer, actually, as
Skuld knew, for she'd taken the photo herself) and smiling broadly. His
left hand was resting on a mecha that looked something like one of Skuld's
mechas, but had flourishes that had clearly come from another hand. The
young man appeared quite proud of his variation on Skuld's design.
   On this photo were written, in the script of the gods, the characters
QNZ. 
   The lefthand photo was of a boy, of medium height this time, about
Skuld's age, with messy hair and wearing a Batman t-shirt. He was on a
bicycle, doing a particularly elaborate trick jump. All the boy's
attention should have been on the bike; but he could not help but look
towards the photographer for the moment the picture was taken as he rode
through the air.
   Skuld thought she might know why, for she'd been the photographer
herself. It was lucky he hadn't hurt himself.
   On this photo were written the characters SNTRW.
   For a long while Skuld mused over the pictures, looking at one for a
few moments, then the other, than back to the first, as if trying to
decide between the two pictures.
   Back, forth. Back, forth. Left, right. Left, right.
   Time passed. The time at each photo steadily decreased, and Skuld
became increasingly agitated, as if by an itch she could not scratch, or,
perhaps, by a problem the solution to which her literally superhuman
intelligence simply could not obtain.
   As time passed, she first muttered, then spoke, then nearly yelled the
names of the people in the pictures.
   Right. "Kenji."
   Left. "Sentaro."
   Right. "Kenji."
   Left. "Sentaro."
   Right. "Kenji."
   Left. "Sentaro."
   Right, left, right, left, right left right left...
   "Kenji. Sentaro. Kenji, Sentaro. Kenji, Sentaro, Kenji Sentaro..."

   At last the bomb exploded.

   "WAAAAH! I CANNOT BEAR TO PART WITH EITHER! WHICHEVER SHALL I CHOOSE?"

   Followed by general weeping and gnashing of teeth, interrupted at last
by the opening of Skuld's door by a rather unhappy (and rather drunk)
Urd, an unhappy (but a bit more understanding) Belldandy, and an unhappy
(but too tired to be belligerent) Keiichi.
   "Dammit, brat, you tryinna wake up the whole freakin' city? Some of
us're tryinna sleep!"
   "Skuld, both of your friends are very nice, and I know to decide
between them is hard, but crying about it won't help..."
   "Yo, Skuld, you been watching too much _Ranma 1/2_ again?"

End (for now, at least...)

---

Paul Corrigan
budgie@insomnia3.dorms.utoledo.edu