At 12:50 AM 11/4/98 -0500, Mike Noakes wrote:

On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, Tom Flair wrote:

Dies Irae
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Alan Harnum - harnums@hotmail.com

'And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power
was given unto him to scorch men with fire.'

I STILL want to know where you come up with these quotes....

	The Bible (Rev.16.viii -- no, I didn't know it off the top of my
head, had to go look it up.  Well worth the time, though.)  Revelations --
the trippiest book of the Book of books!  Very cool reading.

...and then if you take a look at the Dead Sea scrolls there's all these
other Gospels, if I recall. Gospel according to Mary Magdelene, according
to Thomas, et cetera.

<Brrrt. brrrt. brrrrrrrrt. There, now to clean the chainsaw after hacking>

	I could be wrong, of course.  Did I miss something (translations
aren't always reliable, or maybe I just forgot) that answers my question?
Do they specificaly _say_ that adult Saphron is god-like in power and
unstoppable? (I do remember his fate -- as heat and light source for his
people -- seemed rather hellish to me.  Wonder how they kept him in
check?)  This is why I had trouble with the armies of the world being
unable to stop him -- seems a coupla sidewinders oughta blow him into itsy
bits that'd have a heck of a time regenerating... or at least blast him
back into an infant again.  And as for a nuke...

Well, here's something I mentioned to Alan, which could be a possible
explanation for the last. Thermonuclear blasts are, well, hot... Very
hot. Extremely hot, in fact. Heat doesn't seem to bother Saffron at
all; he does, in fact, produce a lot of it himself. The nukes then
might possibly not only not damage him, but heal him....


As for Saffron's power level? Well, he is an adult now, and at his
prime and most powerful. I believe it is also mentioned that his
energy is basically limitless-- indeed, he _needs_ to give off
energy.
	Beyond which, he is described as the god-king, yes? This implies
vast amounts of power and being exceedingly hard to kill, if not
actual immortality (which would also fit nicely into the phoenix bit
as well). Who knows what else he might manifest when he reaches his
full power-level?
	Besides, it works for the story.... 

And now listen to me heap praise on Alan Harnum:

This is a very good story, I thought, and it has nothing to do with
me making a few suggestions for it at all. ^_^ The changes Mr. 
Harnum has made to the draft are rather negligible-- that's how 
good he is. The challenge has been met on several levels, and in
several locations by different characters. 
	The prose has all the inevitibility of a fairy tale, and works
its way deep into us. The additions of the military transmissions and
communiques adds a realism to the story which grounds it firmly in
reality, further enhancing the feel of Doom (and I mean more fate and
destiny than the more modern use of the word) and somewhat vision-like
quality of it. The quote from Revelations is especially fitting, because
it is another book which is filled with the dream-like quality (it was,
in fact a vision John received).
	I am taken in by the story and swept away by it. I'd like to say
that I hate Alan Harnum, because he's just so damn good, but I can't
because then I'd be denying myself the pleasure of reading his writing--
life's so unfair, isn't it? ^_^ 

Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis is:
InDefinitelyso on IRC
See him on FFIRC [bachman.newberry.edu fanfic]
Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck
	maybeso@ican.net
Playing the fool in a foolish world
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Sheen watched his flight. "I forgot to mention the most
important thing," he murmured. "If there's one thing a mind
can't avoid, it is its automatic aversion to evil. The
moment he lets it into himself, he places his feet on the
road to demolition."
 		    -excerpt from A Billion Days of Earth
			by Doris Piserchia
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