allyn yonge wrote:

Not at all. IDEAS are often more powerful than things.
Material things, having substance, rot, rust and turn
to dust.
An IDEA is immune to these things.

You mean like this? ;P  [BTW, dark warning on some of these.]

---

"I wish I could marry the man of my dreams," Ukyo breathed, looking
starry-eyed at Ranma.

"Wish granted."  *poof*

Ukyo grinned.  "I don't want to waste any time."

"Neither do I," a voice answered from behind her.

Ukyo faltered, then looked back.  And forth.  And back.  Two Ranmas.

The Ranma in front of her palmed his face.  "Geez, Ucchan.  I *told*
you I wanted to be your friend, not your fiancee."

---

"So, Panda."

The black and white furred beast sighed.  'Panda'.  That was his only
name, now.  True, he maintained his legal name - with all the genemods
and androids running around these days, it had been quite easy for a
demonstrably sapient panda, even one without human vocal chords, to
spin a quick white lie about how his aging human form had visited a
biolab and come out like this, robbed of human skin in exchange for
eternal youth.  And if anyone checked, "Jusenkyo" was indeed long
destroyed, though the dates were all wrong and its methods were not
modern science's.  But all anyone called him to his face was 'Panda'.

"I hear you got quite a few tales o' the old days.  They say you even
knew Nabiki Tendo, once."  The stranger leered.  "Did you...*know*
her?"

Of course.  Anyone associated, even tangentially, with the currently
uber-wealthy must have devoted their entire lives to that association.
He flipped up a sign.  #No, but my son might have.  He was engaged to
her, or one of her sisters.  Their choice.#

"Oh?  So where's your son at?  Got a hankering to do a pornlitical
activist recreation starring her, and I'd need some deta-"

#The graveyard.#  And better off there, he did not add.  He had had
such dreams, such high hopes for his offspring...until Nabiki butchered
him, Nodoka, and her own family in a Yakusa initiation he only barely
escaped from.  At the time, he suspected mind control; he eventually
scraped together proof, but by then people had stopped caring.  This
stranger was a perfect example: the only way people still paid any
attention to politics was if one mixed in a heavy dose of sex, whether
or not it had anything to do with the issue at hand...thus the name,
"pornlitical".  But even with that edge, or perhaps because it was so
necessary, the ranks of those who believed in real change through such
measures grew slimmer every day.

Genma wondered, some days, what business he had still being alive.  He
had nothing to live for.

---

"Don't worry, mama."  Chibi-Usa smiled despite her tears.  "You'll
pull through this.  You always do."  She tugged at the corners of
Serenity's mouth, forcing it into a smile, and stared into the blank
eyes of the head cradled in her lap.  "Come on, mama, you can say it.
'Moon Healing Escalation'.  Just say it, and everything'll be better."

None of the other Sailors gathered around had the heart to point out
that the head was no longer connected to anything, and indeed was the
only piece of Serenity's body of significant size that remained intact.
Nor did any of them show any confusion about why Crystal Tokyo, still
quite a few years in their future except that they had time travelled
again on another quest, was now fading away around them, leaving only
dead, blasted wastelands as far as the eye could see.

---

I grew up with Yosho.  I dreamed of him as my lover.  But he grew old,
and would not have me.

Along the way I met his grandson, Tenchi.  I dreamed of him as my
lover.  But he chose another.

Along the way I met again my rival, Ryoko, and consoled her after
Tenchi also rejected her.  I dreamed of her as my lover.  But she ran
away.

Now I dream of sweet, hot, fiery death.  Jurai's sun shall be my lover,
my treeship our flimsy condom.  You should find this note just as it
begins to break, sister.  Farewell.

---

Theory AB324890 popped into existence in Washu's brain.  Where it came
from was still only partially understood, but she had set up almost an
assembly line for everything thereafter.  First, theoretical spotlight:
did it contradict the most relevant physical laws?  Not that such would
totally disqualify it...but this one passed that test.  Next, practical
analysis: how to test?  Fortunately, this was easily verifiable, though
it could not be proven or refuted just from tests she had already run.
A quick programming session on her computer, and the experiment played
out.  Conclusion: theory disproven.  Especially rigorous was the
dissection to see what, if anything, could be salvaged, then it was
tossed on her memetic garbage pile to be vaporized by being forgotten.

---

Misty blinked.  Bike?  What bike?

It had once been important, she guessed, given the way Ash talked about
it.  And, indeed, she could remember a few glimpses of it from their
first encounter.  But what happened afterwards...?  It was like looking
at scraps of a picture that had mostly turned to dust, except she saw
only frames and disconnected moments from a memory mostly
forgotten...

She shrugged.  If it was that important, perhaps Ash could tell her all
about it.  Did he even have Pikachu back then?  She liked to think she
was almost as close, or maybe closer, to him than his pokemon...at
least, on the rare occasion when he was not annoying her.
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