Timothy Groves wrote:

Hah!  As funny as I've seen in a long time.  My hat is off to you, and I
shall certainly watch for more of your work.

And do I detect the possibility of a sequel?  Not just from the ending
Ranma/Nabiki delusion, which could be written off as just a parting
quip, but a few other loose ends left untied.  One can hope...

________________

Glad you liked it.  ^_^  While I think it could be fun, I don't really have
plans for a sequel at present.   I have too many other things to keep me
busy.  But since I forgot to include it in my first post, my web site is at
http://www.maisonbellchan.net

________________

Sebastian Palm wrote:

 I'm not going to cry "plagiarism", but Allyn Yonge has a story named "I'm a
 Guy" that uses more or less the exact same premise. As with that story,
I'll
 say that my suspension of disbelief takes a major blow at the idea that
 reinforcing the delusion would be good for the afflicted one, and I also
 find it hard to believe that Akane could duplicate Ranma's techniques -
 'knowing how' is not enough, when the body and mind hasn't practiced...
 (People who jump out of buildings believing they can fly seldom manifest
 that ability...)

________________

Sorry you didn't like it.

It's a typical sitcom plot, employed hundreds if not thousands of times
before.  I believe Gilligan's Island has used it, for example.  If similar
plotting was a basis for plagarism, most authors around the world, whether
pro, amatuer, or whatever, would be guilty.  ^_^;  Even within Ranma 1/2
fanfiction it would be hard these days to produce a plot that was truly
unique, that had never been done before.  I don't think I've read Allyn's
story but I will tonight.  ^_^

(Pause)

Okay, now I've read it.  (at
http://www.geocities.com/ayongedarling/IMAGUY.htm if anyone's interested).
I must say, I found this particular line to be... well, if not admirable, at
least very vivid:  "They say that love is blind. In this instance it was
deaf, dumb and blind to reason as a rabid badger with it's testicles caught
in a threshing machine."

Erm... I'm not sure whether to applaud or sue for mental cruelty.  But I
think I can safely say it's at least as silly as my story, and written on
the same premise, but otherwise not very similar.  Now that I see it again,
it seems familiar, so maybe I *have* read it before.  But I still don't
think it influenced my own story in anyway.

And as for the rest -- strong emphasis on the word "silly".  Suspension of
disbelief is a subjective thing at best, and is different for every person.
Naturally I don't intend to represent real psychiatric treatment here, I
hope that's perfectly clear.  ^_^;  I like to think a universe like Ranma's
is particularly stretchy when it comes to suspension of disbelief -- after
all, we're asked to believe that one boy can turn into a girl when splashed
with water, another turns into a pig and can slice trees in half with his
belt, a third turns into a duck and can hide hundreds of weapons in his
robes or even in his duck-body's wings... and that's just the tip of the
iceberg.  You know, people who jump out of buildings believing they can fly
seldom manifest that ability in the real world, but the percentage is
probably much higher in your typical anime universe.  ^_^

**************************

Suspension of Dis Belief
-- or --
When Pig Boys Fly
A half-hour Spamfic by M A Davis / Miko

    "You can do dis, Brudda!  Dis Kahuna have da faith in you!"

    The wind tugged at the feathers of Ryoga's costume.  It whipped Ranma's
red silk top about and snapped at the Furinkhan High Principal's loud
Hawaiian shirt.  The wind worried Ryoga more, given that he was perched on
the edge of a sheer precipace while the other two were standing well away
from it.

    Ryoga glanced down.  Fourty stories below, cars and pedestrians were
embroiled in a typical evening commute, complete with traffic jams and
honking horns, but from up here it was only a distant din.  The wind in his
ears was much louder.

    "It's not your faith in me that I'm worried about," Ryoga said,
nervously.  "It's the knowledge that the ground is hundreds and hundreds of
feet below.  I happen to know exactly how hard  that pavement down there
is."

    "You no worry, Brudda!  I stay up all night makin' dis suit!  You wear
dis, and you fly like da eagle!"

    "He looks more like an overgrown chicken," Ranma muttered under his
breath.  Ryoga had never seen the "swan" costume that the Principal had
designed to help Akane learn to swim, but this "eagle" costume looked
remarkably similar.

    "This is stupid," Ryoga said.  "I don't know how I got talked into
this."

    "Don't look at me," Ranma said.  "You're the one who wished he could
fly."

    "Just because I want to fly doesn't mean I can," Ryoga said.

    The Principal clasped his hands together.  "You gotta listen to me,
Brudda!  I help make your dream come true!  You only fall if you _think_ you
gonna fall!  Suspension of dis belief is da key!  You think you fly, den you
gonna fly!"

    "You really think so?"

    "Don't worry so much, Ryoga!" Ranma exclaimed with a grin.  "You're as
tough as they come!  If this doesn't work I'm almost certain you'll survive
the fall!"

    Ryoga started to turn.  "If it's all the same to you," he said, "I think
I've changed my...."

    "Time to fly!" the Principal exclaimed, and shoved Ryoga off the roof.

    Ranma and the Principal watched Ryoga plummet towards the street.  He
looked like a giant beach ball covered in white feathers.  Ranma wondered
briefly if he would bounce like one.  "This isn't gonna be pretty," he
murmured.

    The Principal produced a small remote control device and pressed the
large red button in the center of it.  "Switch on," he said softly.

    Instantly the wings on Ryoga's costume began to flap.  They moved up and
down so quickly that they were a blur.  His descent slowed, and then the boy
in the goofy chicken costume actually began to rise.

    "Wow!" Ranma exclaimed.  "That thing actually works!"

    "You doubt dis Kahuna?" the Principal replied.

    Ryoga continued to rise into the sky, flying further and further away.
Soon he was just a speck on the horizon.  "He can turn, can't he?" Ranma
asked.

    The Principal nodded his head.  "Dat ting transform him into de eagle.
He swoop and soar like de bird.  You watch."

    "He's not turning," Ranma said a moment later.  The speck vanished into
the distance.  "Come to think of it, this is Ryoga we're talking about.
He's not _going_ to turn."

    Ranma glanced back at the Principal.  "How long are those batteries good
for?"

    "Dat keiki gonna fly at least twelve hours," the Principal said.  "Dis
Kahuna make sure it not run down too soon."

    "Well," Ranma said, "it's not like he hasn't been lost before...."

FINI


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