The  characters  of  Sailor Moon  are   the
creation  and  possession  of  the  brilliant   Takeuchi
Naoko.  They  belong  to Takeuchi Naoko,   Bandai,  Toei
Animation,  DIC, and all others associated with  rights.
No copyright infringement is intended.
The  characters  of the Ranma 1/2 universe  are  the
creation   and   possession  of  the  brilliant   Rumiko
Takahashi.  They  belong  to Rumiko  Takahashi  and  her
licensees   (Shogakukan   Inc.,   Kitty-Fuji   TV,   Viz
Communications   Inc.)  No  copyright  infringement   is
intended.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@


     Moonlight Reflected in my Tears


     "Ranma?" the world spun crazily as Akane took in the
sight before her.

     "It's not what you think," her father's voice reached her
from a distance as she stared at Ranma, red-hair spilled out
across the pillows, one bare shoulder peeping out from behind
the sheet Tendou Soun had hastily pulled over their nakedness.

     "T . . .the things you see when you don't have a
camera." Nabiki was proud at how steady her voice sounded.
She had a reputation to maintain, after-all.

     "Would you like some tea?"  The cups tinkled slightly as
Kasumi walked into the room with the Father's day breakfast
they'd prepared as a surprise. She chided herself for forgetting 
to change the calendar in Soun's room.

     "It was . . .it just happened." Ranma said lamely.

     "You just happened to fall into my father's bed?" Akane
said hollowly. "You just _happened_ to be naked?"

     "I can't lie to you . . ."

     *LIE boy!* Genma mouthed frantically from behind the
Tendou sisters. *LIE!*

     "We . . .we . . .your fath . . .we love----"

     She was on him, punching and kicking to stop his foul
lying mouth. Someone was screaming, distantly she realized it
was herself. But all she was aware of was the wet meaty thud of
her fists against his slight girl-form. She felt his ribs give and hit
him again and again. Glad of every groan.

     "You'll kill him!" 

     Of course she would. And then she'd kill herself.

     Grabbing hands pulled her away. She fought, not very
effectively, intent only on completing the red ruin that lay on the
bed. More and more hands grabbed her. Genma. Nodaka.
Ryouga? She swatted him away, but he was tough and picked
himself off the floor after only a few seconds. More hands, there
were so many hands pulling at her-----

     The red haze covering her eyes made it hard to see.
When it cleared a little, she was outside, trudging through the
snow. A disinterested part of her mind wondered at snow in
June. It was already past her ankles and falling thick and fast.
Behind her sirens wailed and search-lights split the unnatural
darkness while a young girl in a sailor fuku appeared on all
radio and TV channels, trying to calm peoples fears.

     Oblivious to this Tendou Akane trudged through the
falling snow, uncaring of where she was or where she was
going. As the world went mad, then went to sleep in Crystal
Tokyo's comforting arms, a lone figure walked through the
dark and cold. Walked until her legs and hands were numb and
black with cold. Walked until her feet bled and her eyes were
frozen shut with tears. Walked until she fell. Blind eyes stared at
the stars as a blanket of snow, first of water, then nitrogen,
oxygen and finally helium,  as the earth spun through space.

@@@@@@

     "We've got another one!"

     Mizuno Ami wiped sweat out of her eyes and looked
dazedly around the auditorium they'd commandeered.
Something looked vaguely familiar . . .with a start she realized
it was Juban. You tended to forget things after a thousand
years.

     "Bring him over here." They should have planned better.
Had some sort of system in place for un-thawing the world. But
Setsuna thought it was cute to be cryptic. She'd have to think of 
something nice for the Senshi of Time's birthday. Something involving
boiling oil and perhaps a badger with an attitude.

     "It's a she." The funny little man trotted up wheeling a
garden cart holding a frozen body. "Found her in the bad-lands,
near Fuji-sama."

     "Thanks." Sazuki?  No, Sasuki . . .There were so many
new names. People coming out of a thousand year sleep at
random. What she NEEDED were engineers, doctors, paramedics . . .hell
she'd give a couple of fingers off her left hand for a registered
nurse. Her pinky, anyway.

     "I need a thermal wrap over here," she called, looking
around. "And where the devil is Mars?"
     
     "Don't get your panties in a twist," The senshi of fire
brushed oily hair out of her face as she stepped through a portal
form New York with a rush of displaced air.  She'd been up for
one-hundred-thirty-six hours and even senshi wore out. And she
_itched_. If Pharo 90 showed up with an offer of a hot bath for
her soul, she wouldn't even bother to read the fine print.

     "A little Mars-fire." Ami pointed to the corpse-sickle on
the floor. "She was outside the protected zone, so her cells may
be a little damaged," An understatement, since ice crystals
turned unprotected cells into decomposing liquid mush, "so I
want to try a little mystic fire before we apply normal heat."

     They didn't know why or how, though Mercury
suspected it had to do with Bells 'Unified Whole" quantum
theorem and resetting local space-time to an earlier undamaged
event. Whatever the reason,  serious, even fatal cell damage
from the long cold could be reversed or at least mitigated by the
senshi. Some of the senshi. Which is why Mars, Jupiter and
Venus had been working themselves into a stupor, trying to
rescue as many as possible. Powers over cold and water didn't
really help much. 

     "Watch it!" Ami snapped as Rei's fire burst forth, "we
want to warm her up, not deep fry her."

     "Sorry," Mars muttered, "But I'm gettin' a little tired."

     "OK, that's fine." Ami dismissed her friend from her
mind, concentrating on her patient."

     "Don't mention it," Rei rasped, "Hey! She looks like
you."

     "Huh?" Ami turned off her visor, having been more
intent on her patients internal workings. "She does?" Peering
more closely she noted the short cap of dark hair. "Stockier
than me," She pointed out the dense musculature, "and maybe
taller."

     A groan brought her attention back to the girl who was
stirring on the floor.  Eyes, dark with confusion, snapped open
and the girl jerked away in surprise.

     "Easy, easy, "Ami soothed, holding the girl firmly but
gently on the floor. "You've been asleep for a while. Take it
slowly at first." She always hated this, explaining that the world
they knew was gone. A thousand years gone. Usagi was much
better at this. But her she was asleep. A little something in her
tea, before she killed herself with over work. "Who are you?
What's your name?" It helped if they could find family or
friends as quickly as possible. Unless she was the first awake.
That was the worst, other than the only _survivor_ of a family.

     "Wh . . .who?" the girl grated.

     "That's right." Ami encouraged. "Who are you. What's
your name?"

     "I . . .I don't know!" Tendou Akane scrambled away
from Ami, staring around in fright. "I don't know. I don't know
who I am!"


@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
 

I wrote this in response to some discussion that's come up over
characterization, but especially NARRATIVE. SHOW, don't
tell. AND overcoming canon or "how much do I have to
explain and when?" 

I'm using:
Jiro Maeda presents
A Ranma 1/2 SailorMoon cross over "Winter's heart"


as a jumping off point for this little exercise, (because a discussion
 we had & my C&C put the darn thing in my head
and I couldn't get it out) but I could have done any number of
things. However, this seemed a natural progression from this and a
couple of other stories I've just C&C'd.



Notice that I immediate set up the "change", then get the hell
out of dodge to start the real story. I do NOT explain the
situation, but give a hint. That is, all this is happening at the
SAME instant that the world is going into a 1000 year sleep. IF
I need to give more than that hint at the beginning (on advice of
C&C) I can add a few (very few lines) showing OTHER
strangeness. I don't have to go into detail YET. Just enough so
the reader can continue to suspend disbelief. 

And that's it. This is a pretty open framework. I COULD have
Kasumi-chan in bed with Mr. Panda or Akane with Ryouga or
no-one in bed at all. I just need SOME trauma to drive Akane
(or Ranma or Nabiki or someone) out of the house. 

The rest is just an example of narrative. For a more finished
product I'd probably tweak things with more sight, sound, smell
to give a better picture of what's going on.

Of course there are any number of ways to carry a story from
here. In this instance the idea is to start Akane on a fresh life, a
rebirth with an eventual collision with her old life. In this case I
envision her leading a splinter group to Nemisis. Not fond of
her old life on Earth, but not trusting Wise Man either. 

The important thing is
SHOW
and
Preserve the readers WILLING suspension of disbelief.  You
MUST take time to overcome the inertia of canon before you
can change direction and write your own story.







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