And now for some comments by someone who has averaged four hours sleep a
night this week, wrote two case analyses and a paper due on three
consecutive days, and yesterday read over three hundred pages of material
on East Asian economic development. 

At 02:38 PM 10/23/97 -0400, Reid Carson wrote:

                          What Dreams May Come

   He rose slowly from the murky depths of unconsciousness, heading with
all his strength for the light that lay before him. He struggled to focus,
but the pain in his head caused the scene before him to blur as tears
welled in his eyes. He kept fighting, impelled by the conviction that he
had learned something important, something he had to tell them before it
was too late. There it was again! Like glimpsing the sonorous tolling of
a temple bell, or smelling a delicate shade of chartreuse - "A vatch," he
managed to croak. "I relled a vatch!"

  Yay!  Another Karres fan.  Hmmm.... Goth, Capt. Pausert, and the Leewit
end up in Ranmaverse?  That would be a weird crossover.

   "Of course it's not the way he likes it, Nabiki dear," Akari said
sweetly, pushing her way forward and kneeling next to Ranma. Ranma couldn't
help but notice that she seemed to be wearing rather more makeup than
usual. That skirt was several inches shorter than he remembered, and surely
she hadn't always worn blouses that low cut, had she? "Like most people, he
prefers his beverages non-toxic." Her voice grew husky. "What you really
need is some womanly comforting, isn't that right, Ranma?" Without waiting
for a response, she reached out and pulled his face firmly into her bosom.

   The mind can react oddly in a crisis. Ranma's first thought was that he
had never realized what a nice figure Akari had. It was only when he heard
her begin to moan throatily that he realized something was very wrong. A
babble of voices rose around him, of which the loudest was a female voice
screaming, "DIE RANMA!"

 "Akari!  You ignorant slut!" 

weapon, cursing him roundly the whole time (Ranma hadn't learned much
Chinese, but as the son of Genma Saotome he always got to hear a lot
of profanity, generally directed at them, so he tended to pick that up
pretty quickly).

  You hit Genma dead center.

   His mother was the first to speak. "Ranma, I don't want you to think
I don't appreciate your attempts to prove your manliness, but it's not
necessary anymore. Really, son, I think four fiancees is enough for
anyone. Why on earth would you want another one? Is this yet another of
your father's arrangements?" she asked, looking sternly at Genma.

  Nodoka hasn't changed.

   "How could you do this to us, Genma?" Soun Tendo wept. "Don't we have
enough troubles already?"

   Neither has Soun.

   "What?" Kasumi squeaked.

  Oh my.  Kasumi has changed.  She's actually perturbed.

   "Ranma, you scum!" Dr. Tofu's face grew red. "I warned you what would
happen if you dared lay your filthy hands on my sweet Kasumi!"

  Isn't it nice that Dr. Tofu thinks so highly of you, Ranma.

   "I don't know. Back in my world, maybe." Ranma stopped to consider
this. A Ranma from a world where Akane didn't exist, with fiancee problems
even worse than mine, he thought. Damn, I better get back fast, or he'll
be falling in love with her in no time. He grimaced. The last thing he
needed was to worry about himself trying to steal Akane from himself. Only,
without knowing how he got here, how could he ever get back?

  Aha! A serious rival for Akane.

   "Something struck me while I listened to Ranma. The world he described,
and in particular this girl Akane, sounded very much like something
son-in-law might have imagined if he were to try to dream up an ideal life
for himself."

   Ranma blinked. The notion that the life he remembered was in any sense
ideal was almost too bizarre for him to grasp.

  Too bizarre for the reader as well.

   "This is not an acceptable situation," Nodoka said sharply. "Can we
locate this Xiar Min and find out from her? Perhaps force her to undo
whatever spell she used?"

  They can't force her.  No one is allowed to squeeze the Xiar Min.

   "Oh Ranma, my love. Have you finally realized those girls are no good
for you? I'm the only one who really loves you, who really understands. Ah,
so strong and manly is your scent, my senses reel," Kuno said, nuzzling his
neck.

   That's right. He was currently male.

  Speaking of bizarre...

   Kodachi dropped the wrench she had used to shut off the water from the
fire hydrant and skipped over to Ranma, looking as cute as could be in her
St. Hebereke fuku. "Did I do that, Ranma darling? I'm so sorry," she burst
out. She bit her lip and clasped her hands in front of her, looking up at
Ranma contritely. "I've been very bad, haven't I, getting your clothes all
wet like that, so they cling revealingly to your strong yet supple waist
and your firm young breasts. I must be punished for that, I know." Her
gaze grew so hot it seemed to scorch Ranma's face as her voice beseeched,
"Punish me, please!"

  "Naughty, naughty Kodachi.  You must spank her.  Then you must spank all
of us." 

  Sticks and stones
  May break my bones
  But whips and chains
  Really turn me on

   It might seem a difficult, even impossible task to find a person you've
never seen before in a city as large as Tokyo. Ranma didn't expect much
trouble. "Since I can always find a fight, even when I don't want one,
if I swear that the only person I'm going to fight is Xiar Min I should
run across her pretty quickly." The correctness of his rather specious
reasoning appeared to be borne out when, after an hour of searching, he

  His reasoning isn't specious.  Given what passes for a normal day with
Ranma, his hypothesis is quite reasonable.

   He rose slowly from the murky depths of unconsciousness, heading with
all his strength for the light that lay before him. He struggled to focus,
but the pain in his head caused the scene before him to blur as tears
welled in his eyes. Hadn't he been through this already? At the edge of
his senses he noticed something, a taste like lavender laughter. "That
damn vatch again!"

  THIS DREAM GAME IS MOST INTERESTING, SMALL PERSON.  

   "I don't know, child." Cologne sighed. "If Xiar Min managed to cast the
spell again, there are several possible outcomes. If our Ranma was indeed

  Has Xiar Min ever successfully repeated a spell before?  Ranma has the
oddest effect on probability.  I wonder what would happen if he ever
visited Las Vegas?  

   Cologne said nothing. She looked at Ranma's face as he lay limply in
Shampoo's arms. It bore a look of peace that she had seldom seen there,
and a slight smile that was even more unfamiliar. She thought, "When I

  You should eliminate the sentence about his look since it seems to point
towards the dream world as the likely truth of the matter.  

  Good story.  Is this one your Halloween piece or will we see an even
creepier one?  
  Who was asking for Ranma fics with original plots?  Yo, we have one here. 
 

                                                              dml