On Sun, 16 Nov 1997, Richard Lawson wrote:
This is a sequel to "Out of Sync", my first Ranma/Sailor Moon crossover.
Like the first one, this isn't meant to be particularly deep; it's just an
idea I had and decided to go with. For me, it was a *lot* of fun writing
this story, and that's what's most important. :)
Quite :)
Well, that's it. This story is not like a Davies or a Biles... er, I mean
it's not like a story written by Davies or Biles... but heck, like I said,
I had a lot of fun with it. ^_^
Not so different as you might think :)
Unless you mean it isn't 2000000 pages long, in my case :)
He looked at the hole again. "Will you have me back by dinner?"
The hole strikes me as a hideously blatant plot device, but this line
almost makes me not care. It sort of sums up Ranma's life in a short yet,
simple form :)
Ranma shook his head while he concentrated on the slowly approaching cloud.
"Come on, you seem like a reasonable person. I mean, what're you trying to
do? Run off so you can change out of your secret identity and become a
superhero?"
Hehe :)
She finished up and looked at him. Years had melted from her. Now she
looked no older than sixteen. Yet it was still her, still the woman who
Interesting.
(One way to make sense of that shot with them all standing on the cliff
over the city and none of them have aged except Serenity.)
Splendor, Ranma reflected, was a word he had known the meaning of but had
never used to describe anything. The throne room was the living embodiment
of the word. It seemed to be carved entirely of crystal. Light pulsed at
irregular intervals through the crystal, leaving pleasant little chimes in
its wake. Trees grew right out of the floor, forming an aisle that lead to
the throne. They were green and beautiful and birds sang in them. Ranma
gaped up at them, mesmerized.
I wish I had a picture of this :)
All these images flickered through his mind faster than he could hold onto
them. They left in their wake one word. A name. "Serena!"
The effect of Ranma's startled exclamation could only be describe as
devastating. Almost as one, everyone around him dropped their mouths open.
Ranma looked around at the shocked surprise, and felt that if touched any
one of them with a feather, they would all fall down at once. Which, Ranma
was forced to admit, was not too far from what he was feeling right now.
"How-" The King's voice was strangled, and he obviously had difficulty
getting the words out. "How do you know my wife's - the Queen's -
pre-Millenium name?"
HEHE :)
The Warriors all gave an "Ah." Sailor Venus began giggling, and everyone
was smiling, even Sailor Mars. Ranma did his best not to glower, secretly
wondering if these Star Lights had been to Jusenkyo.
HEH! :)
"Well, you did mention light and happiness. All has been peaceful since
the evil was defeated. We've begun to revitalize the rest of the Earth.
We call this period the Silver Millenium. It has proved to be ample
reward for the people who suffered through the years past."
The Silver Millenium was the time of the Moon Kingdom. I believe Crystal
Tokyo is the Crystal Millenium (Or it may not have an age name. can't
remember)
Ranma leapt and caught each Warrior in an arm. His landing was not
graceful, and he dropped them as he stumbled. He quickly sprang to his
feet and looked at the Warriors. Sailor Jupiter looked bad, but Sailor
Mars was not breathing.
Ranma knelt over her, putting her on her back. He straightened her head
and neck, opened her mouth, and blew in two deep breaths. He turned his
head and listened for a second, but didn't hear anything. Grimacing, he
placed his hands over her sternum and began pumping. One, two, three... he
counted up to fifteen, then moved over to give her two more breaths. He
listened for another second, then repeated the cycle. Twelve, thirteen,
fourteen, fifteen, one breath, two breaths. Listen, then again. Fifteen,
two. Fifteen, two. Tears began to form at the corners of his eyes as he
worked. He ignored them and the despair behind them as he continued to
work on Sailor Mars. Fifteen, two. Fifteen...
I don't know why, but too many paragraphs in a row here started with
Ranma's name for my tastes. This is something I do myself a lot, now I
understand why people chew on my head for it :)
Ranma winced. "I, uh could use that power. I don't if I can take many
more like that."
I don't know if
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Feel free to disagree with my interpretation of the old Queen's actions.
Sure seemed like the equivalent of setting off a nuclear bomb in order to
keep the enemy from having your city. We are told so little about the
attack of the Negaverse on the Moon Kingdom that there's not a lot of data
to extrapolate from, but it sure seems to me that the ol' super-powerful
Queen shoulda done something *before* her daughter was zapped by Beryl.
Well, despite the fact that SM uses the crystal like a mad dog :), I have
the impression that the use of it was something that was not normally
contemplated. As long as there was hope of winning by less destructive
means, she held back. But given a lack of evidence, your interp. is as
good as mine.
That's not the problem I have with this story, it's the idea of
"Conservation of Evil" which bothers me. In a universe in which such was
true, all human striving to improve the world would be futile, for if you
solved one problem, you would only, and always create another one. It
also conflates natural evil (Earthquakes, fires, floods) and human/moral
evil. If you did have progress in fighting natural evil (which clearly
has occurred in at least some respects in our century), then you would
have to lose ground somewhere else.
If evil is TRULY conserved, then every advance you make has to occur at
someone else's expense. By helping someone, you would have to hurt
someone else.
Ultimately, this story is a tragedy. Serenity saves her soul at the
expense of humanity. If evil is truly conserved, then all human striving
is futile. No matter what our heroes and heroines did, they could not
win, for any victory would have to be balanced by defeat in something
else.
Or am I misunderstanding your point?
Side note:
My own vision of Crystal Tokyo is that of a society in which the problem
of physical evil has been solved, but not that of moral evil. Moral evil
is less of a problem, because some needs and wants that drive people to
immoral actions are more easily met in moral ways. Eventually, I'll get
around to writing Black Moon Rising, which will actually set this vision
out. All I have to do is finish my 20000 other projects...:)
John Walter Biles : MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu
rhea@tass.org http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/
The Moon Hill Gymnasium was crowded with students, most from Moon
Hill, but some from other schools. The special committee to pick the
theme for the first spring dance had argued for weeks over a theme. Many
ideas had been suggested: Love--American Style, Spring Sock Hop, Can't
Stop Doing the Monkey, The Black Plague, Enchantment under the Sea, Zinc
Oxide and You, Space Viking Vixen Women from Venus, The Progressive Era,
and The First Spring Dance. After extensive argument, the sole remaining
conscious committee member had selected the theme "Our Gym Covered in
Crepe Paper."
--Sailor Moon Z #7