THIS, ladies and gentlemen (and given the activity of the past weekend, I'm
obviously using the phrase *very* loosely), is why *I*m still subscribed to
the FFML.  Every so often, once you shove aside the bickering and the
quarrelling (no mean feat, but compared to the virus emails I'm getting from
someone claiming to be Microsoft, no big deal in comparison), you can find a
decent story, even from a series that many seem to feel has been milked to
death.

Maybe I see a bit of one of my own stories in here (which ironically enough,
was set over New Years', too), but I really can appreciate the bittersweet
tone of this tale, and I want to recommend it to some of y'all that may have
missed it in the chaos.

I always think of 'myself' as a tragic figure in Ranma�, always trying,
doomed to fail... I forget there are others who *chose* to fail (or chose
not to try, at any rate), and their tragedy is no less great for it.

                    Well After Christmas

                  --siaru 14mar02/06oct03

Odd choice for a title, siaru-chan, given that it's nowhere *near* Christmas
as you release this.  But I take it that this is based on the description of
a girl as a 'Christmas cake'; more to the point, one that hasn't sold even
so long after Christmas, and is in danger of going stale.  27 years old, and
a fossil, no?

Others had helped, but it had really been Kasumi who had
shackled herself to the mundane until it was too late for the
unusual to successfully catch her up and carry her away into her
dreams.

And really, if we step back a bit, isn't Kasumi the one we can all relate
to?  In real life, we aren't supercharged martial artists, we're just
ordinary people who happen to be otaku.  We're more mundane than we care to
admit to ourselves or others, ne?

She didn't want to
spend this evening alone by herself, but she didn't want to spend
it alone with [her family] either.

It's a very bitter future for Kasumi, but not wholly surprising.  Too long
playing 'mother' to ever manage to play 'wife'.

Where had her dashing hero gone, after all?

She didn't need to ask why he had never arrived. He _had_ arrived,
and she had rejected him as too much work on top of the work
she had already assigned herself.

And unlike any other charactr in the series, Kasumi knows better to blame
Ranma for her situation - although he is still an integral part of why she's
in this situation (or more to the point, her rejection of him is)

Fixated on that mythical perfection, she wasn't willing to
accept a prince who was a part-time princess with a guttersnipe
mouth and feral ways, someone with rough edges to be smoothed
before he'd be ready for that princely role, and she'd fended
him off towards Akane. She'd known within a week that she'd made
a mistake, but she didn't ever realize the magnitude of her
error until...  Until he was gone for good, though nobody knew
it at the time.

Wow.  How many of us does this describe?  I know I got lucky, even in
settling for a real-life Konatsu (who some would consider 'second-rate'),
but this is uncomfortably close to what I might have settled for.  I doubt
I'm alone in this.

She turned the next corner, and leaked misty breath up through
her grateful smile. There _was_ someplace open, a Macudonarudo.
It would have to do. While her family was gaily traipsing up the
streets to the red torii of the shrines to be blessed, for those
who felt unworthy or who resented the emptiness of the purity
and peace that was offered, there was this shrine of the
mundane with its golden arches, and its blessing, empty food.

Oh, this is just beautiful description.  The comparison of 'golden arches'
to the 'red torii', and the shallowness of the former, is truly inspired.

Unless you're a really big fan of McDonald's, I suppose.

The small, almost tasteless meat in the bun was hard to swallow,

And you're *not* a big fan of McDonald's, are you, siaru-chan?

just like her life now. There was almost nothing there. The meat
of it was missing, or easily missed, it was so bland.

D'ya suppose Kasumi-chan has fears of turning into Clara Peller?  "Where's
the beef?"

But that
was what the sticky-sweet bubbly drink was for: to wash it down.
Just like her smile.

Another beautiful, bittersweet simile.  One would think you'd gone through a
heartbreak of your own recently to put something like this together, sugar.

Even as she reached into the little bag to pull out another
tasteless limp stick of deep-fried potato, idly wondering what
part of her life that symbolized,

Hm.  I'm going to leave the Freudian analyses to others, thanks.

She idly took in the woman's face, with its pert nose, its
stubborn chin, its thick lashes with, from this angle, hints of
red among the mascara...

Don't forget those blue eyes...  ^_~

Her voice got softer and smaller as she finished, "That's a big
reason why I'm a girl now: so people won't make me kill 'em.
'Cuz it's just too easy for me, even now, even like this." She
dropped her chin into her hands.

I'd think that would be a bit of a stretch for Ranma, as affected as he may
well have been by Jusendo.  However, it's enough that I'm able to suspend my
disbelief for the sake of the story.  I already pointed out how Kasumi's
life should be familiar to all too many of us; how ironic that Ranchan
should seek such a life out, even as he (yes, HE) realizes it's nowhere near
the best he can do:

The grin faded back into evident fatigue, and Kasumi watched it
and ached inside as she thought about the greatest martial
artist of a generation being reduced by circumstance and her own
inaction to someone whose greatest ambition was to be a typist
and tea-lackey... a role all too close to her own. What had she
done to her prince?

And once again, Kasumi shoulders so much more of the blame than she should,
in contrast to just about any other character in the series.

"Actually, Akane's cooking is quite bland now. Rather tasteless,
but healthy."

"So... Well, maybe that's one thing I did right..." She pursed
her lips and stared down at the wilted lettuce remains of her
meal.

Which, ironically enough, describes the McDonald's salad she's poking at.
Or was that intentional?  ^_^

She had no way to make contact again, not
even a name to search for; they had each brought their own half
of a broken thread. There was only now, and beyond that the
silence of a lifetime.

Oh, wow... I hadn't even thought about that symbolism!  Great job,
siaru-chan.

Kasumi knew better than to spurn this obvious divine response to
her inner cry. The kami did not give second chances lightly and
they always made you work harder for them.

Words of wisdom, indeed.  A very thoughtful, bittersweet (how many times
have I used that word?) story, and a credit to you indeed.  Thanks,
siaru-chan, for this little gem.

Itsu mo,
Ucchan  ^_^


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