On Mon, 25 Nov 1996 09:42:07 Krista Perry wrote:
: These changes will be evident in the final draft of the
: story when I post the whole, completed fic on the ML.
That'll be our cue then, right, Mike?
: ---------------------------------------------
: Hearts of Ice
: Part 10: Of Love and Insanity
: by Krista Perry
: --------------------------------------------
: The tengu's eyes softened. "Then I beg you, Yuki-chan. Let
: it go. Leave Ranma alone. Fulfill your promise to Akane. Break
: the blood spell and let her go home to her family."
:
: Yuki-onna shook her head, her eyes closed. "*I* am her
: family."
:
: Now the tengu shook his head in frustration. "No. You are
: a lonely, bitter woman who has grown tired of eternity. You want
: to keep Akane for yourself, even if it means sacrificing her
: happiness."
: Yuki-onna's head snapped up, and there was cold fire in her
: eyes. She trembled as she struggled to contain her fury. "She
: is happy here." Her voice was a low rasp through clenched teeth.
: "She *was* happy here, until *he*..." She broke off, unable to
: continue.
: Akane stood frozen in silent disbelief after inadvertantly
: eavesdropping a few feet from the entrance to the Snow Woman's
: quarters, all thoughts of the daily untangling of the blood spell
: forgotten. There was a rush of air, and the tengu moved past her
: with such speed that all she saw was a blur of rust-colored
: feathers.
: Hot tears spilled from her eyes as she ran blindly through
: the crystalline corridors of the Snow Woman's home, her sobs
: echoing off the pristine white walls, the sense of being betrayed
: weighing heavily in her gut. In one brief moment, the Snow Woman
: had changed in her eyes from kindly benefactor to manipulator, to
: possessor. And the Snow Woman's household changed from a home to
: a prison. For the first time in nearly two years, she felt truly
: trapped. Trapped in the Kami Plane by the one person who had the
: power to free her.
I hope she comes to realize that the only way to get out of this
is to *help* Yuki-onna and make her see that Akane is not the cure
for her pain - not this way.
You realize, of course, that you are utterly devastating me with
this story. I actually had trouble breathing, while reading this
story, because my chest tightened so. I haven't had that happen
to me in *quite* some time.
: She stood from the table to face him. "Ranma," she said.
: "Listen. The blood spell was cast on you, not on any of us. You
: remember that, don't you?"
: "Then it doesn't really make sense that we're the ones with
: the faulty memories, does it?"
: <Odd,> realized Nabiki suddenly, <that the blood spell would
: create a girl to be the thing Ranma loves most. Maybe he's not
: as shy about women as I thought...>
: Nabiki shook her head. "Look, Ranma, I don't know where all
: this stuff came from. Maybe you put this here while under the
: influence of the blood spell or something. Maybe the blood spell
: created some physical evidence to help convince you. It doesn't
: matter. It doesn't change the fact that none of us were touched
: by the blood spell, and you were. You have to accept that, or
: you're going to drive yourself crazy worrying over a missing girl
: who doesn't exist."
There is a flaw with this argumentation. The blood spell was cast
to instill an emotion into Ranma: either hate for Shampoo (in the
"official" story) or love for her (the real reason). But in both
variations the effect could not be achieved directly. Why then
could the blood spell not make Ranma hate (or love) a real person
but apparently had no trouble to instill deep love for a fictional
personality?
Also, how come that they readily believe that the blood spell
could have created all this physical evidence (Ranma certainly
couldn't have in that short time), but refuse to accept that
*they* could have been affected in any way. Um, on the other hand
they are partially right: It's not the spell making them forget -
it's the Kami plane, right?
: Nabiki's eyes burned. She hated this. She hated seeing
: Ranma like this. All of his vitality and confidence seemed to
: have been sapped away in just a few days, all because of the
: blood spell Shampoo had cast because she wanted him as a trophy
: husband to take back to her Amazon village. <Cologne, I swear,
: if you don't come back and cure Ranma of your blood spell in two
: days, you and that Chinese bimbo are toast.>
The question is: What kind of hold has Nabiki on them, now that
Akane is only a fiction. Also, if she still knows that Shampoo
and Cologne cast the spell, what was their motivation in *this*
reality? Apparently they still claimed that the spell was
designed to make Ranma hate Shampoo, judging from the comments of
the Tendou family, so I guess that their motivation is still to
snare Ranma somehow - but how would what appears to happen to him
now help them achieve that? In reality this was halfway
understandable in both versions: Hate could grow because Ranma
would assume that Shampoo was the perpetrator - and love because
the best candidate was removed from the race.
Also interesting is Nabiki's change of motivation. Before, she
only wanted Akane back and didn't care if Ranma found out the
truth (or at least *claimed* that), while now she wants the blood
spell broken for *Ranma's* sake. Intriguing.
: Ranma stared at her with a stupified expression as he
: realized she was trying to cheer him up. This was a side of
: Nabiki he hadn't seen before. "Nabiki..?"
It's not a new side, though. It only now was allowed to shine
through. Oh god, I don't know what breaks my heart more - Ranma
and Akane's pain or the thought of what Nabiki will feel when the
spell is broken.
Oh, and I think it's "stupefied".
: Author's notes: I was gonna write more to go in this installment,
: but then I realized that the next planned segment would fit
: better in the next post. Sorry. I realize there's not much
: action in this segment, but I promise, things are going to heat
: up in the next part. ^_^
:
: So, whaddya think?
I think you must be crazy. You wrench my heart out by the
arteries and then say "Oh, I'm sorry - not much action in this
part". <shakes head> You seem to have a strange comcept of what
makes a story great. :)
Sebastian