At 12:22 AM 5/14/1997 -0500, LaShawn M. Taylor wrote:

Well, I finally finished reading Paint It Black. Got only one thing to say:

IT'S SO WRONG!!!

That's what's so cool about it!  Even if the sex scene stuff was cliche.

(And the horrible thing was that the writing sucked me on, so I couldn't
stop until the end. Darn the fanfic writer, darn him!!!)

Didn't you remember that you're supposed to listen to perky dance pop when 
you read dark gloomy fanfics, so that you can stay calm and save your 
emotional energy for real life?  Especially during finals season?  Lately 
I've been listening to _House_of_Groove_ by various artists and _Substance_ 
by New Order, and it really helps.

Brrr...now I need something light to perk me back up again. Does anyone
have a light, happy Ranma fanfic, one preferably that makes you feel good
about the folks in Nerima?

Okay, I'll post my new one.  It's just a rough draft and I'll probably have 
to add more stuff when I edit it this summer to get the tone right, but 
that's okay for now.

Also, I need some quick info -- at the end of Ranma storyline, what exactly
happens at the 'wedding', particularly with Ryouga? I need to know for this
fanfic I have suddenly been commissioned to write...

The Ranma 1/2 Project has a scanned and translated version of the finale.
It's at http://www.vrg.utoronto.ca:80/~doyama/ranma/.

Why? Hmm...perhaps a little teaser may give you a little more info ;-)
====================

The Australian outback can get incredibly dry during the peak of the day.

A lone vulture was making its way back to its nest. It had not found
anything to eat all day, and it was rather disgusted by the lack of
rotting, putrified meat that in the older days used to litter the outback
so lovingly. What it wouldn't give for a half-dead emu...

Meat doesn't rot and putrefy as quickly in a desert.  That's how it's safe 
for scavengers to eat, even a while after it dies.

The vulture looked down and found itself over a house of some sort. Not
that it would think of it in such human terms. What it was looking at was
something moving beside it, something that smelled of flesh. It was alive
flesh, healthy too. Not exactly what the vulture was looking for. But where
there were humans, there were always trash. Perhaps there was some spoiled
meat thrown out somewhere.

As it began to circle, the vulture heard a strange shout. It looked down
and squawked in amazement as a great ball of light suddenly burst just in
front of the house and hurtled towards it. Futilely, it tried to flap away.

The blast caught the vulture and flung it higher into the air, ripping the
feathers away from its body. Just as quickly, the light vanished and the
now-bare bird hurtled down to earth, crashing just to the side of the house.

A minute later, the vulture shook its head, no worse for wear other than
its feathers. It rose unsteadily to its feet and stumbled away, eyes
rolling in its head. It turned to stare balefully at a man standing by a
mailbox, staring at it as though he was mad. It screeched its indignity and
shuffled off, determined never to go near any human again.

Poor little birdy.

The man simply stared after the vulture, out of shock of what he had done.
Then, slowly, he turned to look at what had set it off in the first place.

Crumpled in his hand, an invitation...

					Coming Later This Week --
					RANMA 1/2 REUNIONS:
					RYOUGA HIBIKI
					(Thanks, Erin!!!)

Sounds cool.  Go for it - and don't worry about getting the series ending 
too accurate.  We'll help you on the points you missed once you post it.