On Tue, 01 Apr 2003 10:24:10 -0600 "C. Jones" <guilty@furinkan.net> wrote:
You may also be interested in a new original story I've been writing
called 'Gabriel'.
http://www.furinkan.net/display.php?pageid=127
It's heavily influenced by 'newRanma', but is all original. You can also
see my crappy artwork since I'm attempting to illustrate the story as I
go. There are currently 3 chapters of 'Gabriel' available.
I can see that Gabriel has a lot of the same problems, but she doesn't
have nearly as much support as Ranma did. She also doesn't have the
luxury of being able to reverse the gender change.
Suggested changes: {before : after}
gabriel01.html:
My life began here. Both my {parents : parents'} lives ended here.
Michael's quite a bit older than me. He was born in the
early seventies, and I was born when he was fifteen. Even
though I'm in my last year of {Junior High : junior high}, Michael's the
manager of the {Technical Support : technical support} department at {an : a} software
company.
"What are you saying?!" Michael asked again, growing
angrier than before. "Gabriel is *not* a hermaphrodite!" he
insisted.
"No! No, Mister Angelus. Gabriel is not a hermaphrodite."
An excellent example of "Don't ask the question if you don't
want the answer."
gabriel02.html:
There were more tests. I was in tests for the rest of the
day, as a matter of fact. I did blood tests, sonograms, more
X-rays. It turns out that I wasn't quite as healthy as the
doctor thought I was. I had a significant hormone imbalance,
which was probably why my... parts... had not grown correctly.
It seems a bit odd that a lot of those tests hadn't been done
when she was born, but I can see it slipping through the cracks.
After their parents died, it would be even more likely for them to be
put off for lack of money.
The shape of her theighs and knees should have given it away, but
people see what they expect to see. Considering her body image
problem, she probably didn't let a lot of people see her scantily
clad.
"It's about a girl who pretends to be a guy, only she's
raped and murdered by the guys who find out she's really a
girl," I told him.
Subtle. <G>
Anthony Fazzi was the son of a New Jersey businessman who
came to Texas to make it big in the computer industry. He
didn't quite make an empire, but he does run a profitable
manufacturing plant. Tony has a big house near Benson's and he
never wants for anything. Surprisingly, and it may be because
he's the youngest son in a big Italian family, he's a very
easy-going guy. He rarely finds reasons to use violence
because he doesn't have to. He's six-foot- three, better than
a foot taller than I am, and weighs {220 : 195}, all of which is
muscle. If you threaten Tony, you better have a few friends
with you to back you up.
He's only in 9th grade, he as time to fill out more later. You also
give his weight as 195 in gabriel-tony.jpg.
"Sure you would," I kibitzed, knowing that if Tony *was*
seriously interested in having a girlfriend, he could walk out
the doors of the school this afternoon with any girl he wanted
to. I don't know if he just wasn't interested yet, busy with
other stuff, or shy. My guess is that he was too hounded by
his mother. Each of Tony's four older brothers had been
'stolen' from her by a 'No-good Texas Trailer-trash Tramp'. Of
course, Mrs. Fazzi never actually used that phrase around her
daughters-in-law, but she cautioned Tony constantly to avoid
the kind women his brothers married-- tall, pretty blondes. I
got the same treatment whenever I visited his house. 'Why
can't you be more like Gabe, Anthony? You don't see him
slobbering over some whore with more boobs than brains!"
The irony in the second to the last sentence was delicious.
"You know," Tony disagreed with me. "You know when
someone's lying to you."
And it's going to be very important to Gabriel how Tony takes
her change in nominal gender. It will be very interesting to
see how he finds out about it.
gabriel03.html:
"Sensitive, are we?" he asked me denigratingly.
"Just tell me what I've got to do," I said. "And I'll do
it."
Doctor Escultor spent several minutes staring at a folder
with my name on the tab. He stared at me critically.
Finally, he grinned. It was a fake, plastic grin. It was
calculated, and held no real mirth or comfort.
I have the hope that Gabriel's feelings are mostly misunderstandings.
She's already primed to be condesended to so she is likely to
interpret things in the least positive way. That could be especially
true if Doctor Escultor grew up in a different culture so his body
language isn't what she expects.
Eventually, I settled on design number three-seventy-two,
as Esculto called it. Basically, it was {most like : closest to} what I
already looked {: like} and would require the least surgery. It didn't
have protruding inner lips like some of the pictures I looked
at, and it still mostly covered everything.
The implication was clear. Here's the note you use when
you get back to school and here are the notes you use when you
decide how you're going to deal with losing your gender.
Freaky doctor knew at least how to do something right.
Which is why I wonder if the freaky doctor is more sensitive to
Gabriel's situation than Gabriel realizes.
"We'll let you rest here for a few more hours and then
perform an inspection later this evening when we change your
dressing. As I said, the surgery went very well. I think we
have 'fixed' you by any definition of the word."
Well, she was already sterile so she didn't have to be fixed by that
definition of the word.
"Hey, Angeulus. How you doin'?!" Tony said excitedly the
next morning. "Something's different," he noted.
Since she's not wearing the skirt, she probably hasn't really decided
which note to show everyone. I'm pretty sure he'd notice if she were.
I look forward to seeing more of how this turns out.
Was it intentional that the Angelus brothers were named for prominent
angels?