[Ranma/Multiple] CTCD Prologue-Teaser

[Fallacies]

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The characters and concepts included in the
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allowing that copyrights are acknowledged.

Comments for improvement greatly appreciated.

***
SIDE-A : Die_APOLOGETICA
broken circle
***

Seems fairly customary nowadays to kick off one of these epic
fanfictions with a load of meaningless speculation about beginnings
and ends and other concepts of the sort.

   [Ignoring the raindrops running across her face, Kasumi carries
   her sister's comatose form through a maze of dimly lit streets in
   the back-alleys of Nerima. A distance away, a cloaked man
   wielding a key-shaped blade trails her path in slow, deliberate
   paces.]

By "of the sort," I mean the ones with no real empirical basis.
Beginnings and ends simply don't exist, because time is a continuum.
The tendency to flag some event as one of the extremities in a
sequence is a strictly human practice. It makes life easier, but it's not
necessarily objective.

   [On-screen at NERV Command, UNIT-01 bashes impotently at
   a shimmering force-field suspended a few meters in front of a
   floating girl. Her golden twin pony-tails and the silken material
   of her black dress billow in the breeze. The orange text at the
   bottom of the display reads, "AT-Field - Pattern Blue : Signature
   - TYPE-MOON."]

The problem really is that the human mind works more smoothly
when you view things using categorical discrimination. It makes
reality finite. You're more likely to call a gray black or white than
name the particular gradient it is.

   [The roar of the cheering crowds at the Tenkaichi Budoukai is
   deafening. A younger Jiraiya grins at the obviously amateur
   stance of his middle-aged opponent as the referee signals for the
   match to start. Jacky Chung simply smirks back.]

Once you move away from color and apply the same reasoning to
more complex matters, you begin to encounter concepts like heroes
or villains or good and evil and fate and justice and the like. None of
these things actually appear in the real world, of course, but people
talk about them like they do all the time.

   [Leaning against the Silence Glaive for support amidst the
   rubble of a collapsed building, Sailor Saturn glares into the skies
   of Tokyo. In the still air, the hulking hand of the RahXephon
   bears in its palm a slender redhead, who without regard to the
   destruction below continues to sing.]

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a process kinda like fractal
compression, whereby the whole universe -- which is somewhat more
difficult to understand than we'd like to believe -- gets gutted and
processed into a nice, clean palette of absolutes. The world we see is
painted in maximal contrast, because that's the only way it can fit into
our little heads.

   [The massive biceps on Kasumi's arm ripple as she sends her
   opponent sprawling across the tatami like a rag doll with a flick
   of her finger.]

Simplicity is divine, but when you wear glasses cut to reduce,
massive distortions tend to appear, usually resulting in caricatures of
things where the nose and forehead and chin are rather more
prominent than other essential features.

   [Against the backdrop of a medieval castle, Ranma clashes
   blades with a figure in a full suit of armor. His opponent's cloth
   hood is tattered by the sonic impact of the broadswords, and
   falls away to reveal the aging face of Demon Lord Piccolo.]

When you get down to it, then, what you've got going in these epic
fics is a sort of discriminatory distortion that has very little to do with
racial tensions and a lot more to do with those kiddy-friendly fairy
tale rewrites where Cinderella doesn't murder her stepmother in cold
blood.

   [Yagami Raito cackles as he gives into the Riot of Blood.]

The thing that always bugged me about the type of exposition I'm
describing here is that it all just seems like a huge waste of time.
Stories with fictional content are still real, in the sense that the better
ones typically mean something when they're done and over with.
Talking circles around hypothetical absolutes, though, is ... well, a bit
pointless.

   [Ranma's face bears a sinister grin as his clawed fingers dig into
   the flesh of Akane's neck. Soun, face empty of emotion, draws
   his katana from its ornamental sheath and charges the boy.]

So, it's highly irrational, but people still do it. Why? Is it because
they're insecure or something? Do they need to reaffirm their
narrative voices so to prove themselves, or are they compelled to
document their own cleverness in digital format for whatever sick,
perverse reason? Maybe it's a mating ritual of some sort?

   [Naked, a fourteen-year-old Ukyou climbs the wire fence along
   the sides of the school roof. Standing atop the railing for a
   moment, she turns to smile sadly at the pigtailed boy banging at
   the window of the door to the staircase. She looks away from
   him, and after what seems a moment of reconsideration plunges
   headfirst to the ground.]

Quite possibly, it's that it's just unacceptable to our tender minds that
absolutes like freedom, justice, and destiny don't -- and *can't* -- at
all approach reification, no matter how much phallic anxiety leads us
to fantasize about piloting giant robots and striking down any infidel
that dares stand in our way. Reality isn't something we can face.

   ['Sometimes,' he writes, 'the difference between Zero and One is
   no difference at all. Sometimes, the difference is all the
   difference in the world.']

So to quiet that little voice that agonizes over Malthus and the
overcomplexity of the human condition, then, our friends in the
business of epic fanfics unload themselves in gratuitous spews of
speculation on this fairy tale worldview.

   [*Shnnnck*, *ssshhpt*, *ssshhpt*, *ssshhpt*.]

And we the readers take part in this communion, and the ceremony of
innocence is drowned in a sea of gunk or LCL and all that good stuff,
but the thing to remember is that it's ultimately all self-delusion.
Maybe, just maybe, it's time we gave the universe a nice, solid look
in the eye ...

   ['I win ...' says a voice to nobody. Somewhere, eyes close.]

Maybe it's time for folks to stop annoying people with pointless
vignettes and get on with the bloody fiction?

***

--- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - ---
Casting The Crying Dream
a ranma 1/2 multicross
by fallacies

pr0logue-teaser : [kyouzai kyougu / khaos]
"the end of the id"
--- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - ---

***
SIDE-B : Die_GEBURT_Der_TRAGODIE
another world, thirteen years ago
***

Ranma willed the blood to vanish from his fingertips, but as if to
mock him it continued dripping into the puddle at his feet. The
sounds of battle filled the sky.

"You believe yourself to be special, child?" someone asked. "You
claimed to love her, and vowed that under your watch she would
never fall to darkness. Look at what you have done instead. This is
the control you so pride yourself in as a martial artist?"

A few meters away, Akane's smiling corpse lay sprawled across the
stone slabbing of the steps. There was a tear in her blouse between
the breasts, which continued into the open cavity he had created in
the space once occupied by her heart. The stain on the cloth around
the wound steadily grew.

"That we cannot forcibly alter you as we have the others means little.
You are not impervious to our influence," said the voice. "There
exists in the world only a single truth, and it is inescapable"

Ranma tore the few remaining shreds of his shirt from his torso and
turned to glare at the source of his torment.

"You really have nobody left to blame but yourself," noted the
speaker, an elderly gentleman in a large overcoat and bowler hat.
"We are not capable of generating hate where it does not originally
exist. Our power acts only to disperse the dishonesties with which
humans veil their hearts -- the cage of the super-ego. Did you think
this woman-child strong enough to resist us where so many others
have failed?"

With each step, Ranma left a print of crimson in the granite. "Don
Genosai," he hissed.

"You insulted her," said Genosai, removing the long white scarf
draped around his neck with a gloved hand. "You bested her in all the
matters that she cared for the most ... Did you believe she forgot, that
she would somehow grant to you her mercy and forgiveness
unconditionally? You answered your deserved share of chaos and
pain with self-pity, pride, and righteousness, that in the end, you were
all but blind to the truth that all mortals suffer comparably. Did you
believe yourself alone in your agony?"

Ranma reached to grasp the old man's collar, but as his fingers closed
in, the man vanished.

"She tried to murder you," said Genosai's fading voice, "because of
_your_ apathy."

No longer caring that he might yet again kill, Ranma quickly located
Genosai's ki signature atop the Furinkan clock tower. Leaping
upwards to the roof, he caught the edge of the building and used the
remainder of his angular momentum to flip himself and send an axe
kick at Genosai's face. The old man back-stepped and allowed
Ranma's foot to hit the concrete. The front of the clock tower
shattered.

"And so too does this heart fall to shadow," said Genosai, smiling. In
his hand, the scarf he held reshaped itself into a white katana. The
city burned, and the clocks struck zero ...

***
The spring has passed,
And the summer come again.
~
End Prologue-Teaser.
***

There is only one series.

[Edward]

[Ignoring the raindrops running across her face, Kasumi carries
her sister's comatose form through a maze of dimly lit streets in
the back-alleys of Nerima. A distance away, a cloaked man
wielding a key-shaped blade trails her path in slow, deliberate
paces.]

This is an odd mental image, implying the raindrops are only running across Kasumi's face and nowhere else.  I'm also a bit vague about how a blade could be key-shaped.

This is an interesting stylistic choice for an opening, but I'm not sure about the use of the present tense for the italicized parts.

[The roar of the cheering crowds at the Tenkaichi Budoukai is
deafening. A younger Jiraiya grins at the obviously amateur
stance of his middle-aged opponent as the referee signals for the
match to start. Jacky Chung simply smirks back.]

You've referenced a lot of series.  I don't recognize this one (or perhaps these ones).

[Against the backdrop of a medieval castle, Ranma clashes
blades with a figure in a full suit of armor. His opponent's cloth
hood is tattered by the sonic impact of the broadswords, and
falls away to reveal the aging face of Demon Lord Piccolo.]

I don't get what you mean by 'the sonic impact of the broadswords', nor why it would only tatter the cloth hood and not anything else in the vicinity.

[Naked, a fourteen-year-old Ukyou climbs the wire fence along
the sides of the school roof. Standing atop the railing for a
moment, she turns to smile sadly at the pigtailed boy banging at
the window of the door to the staircase. She looks away from
him, and after what seems a moment of reconsideration plunges
headfirst to the ground.]

I can see a scene with Ranma arriving too late, but I can't see a mere school door stopping him completely, only slowing him for a moment.

[*Shnnnck*, *ssshhpt*, *ssshhpt*, *ssshhpt*.]

These sound effects are more than a little obscure in meaning.

Casting The Crying Dream

Cool title.

Ranma willed the blood to vanish from his fingertips, but as if to
mock him it continued dripping into the puddle at his feet. The
sounds of battle filled the sky.

Good intro, but I have trouble believing Ranma could only stop this opponent by killing them.

With each step, Ranma left a print of crimson in the granite. "Don
Genosai," he hissed.

Who?

Did you believe she forgot, that she would somehow grant to
you her mercy and forgiveness unconditionally?

Excellent point and what I believe is a fatal flaw in the relationship unless corrected.

"And so too does this heart fall to shadow," said Genosai, smiling. In
his hand, the scarf he held reshaped itself into a white katana. The
city burned, and the clocks struck zero ...

Nice.

There is only one series.

Interesting.  That's a lot to bite off, though.

[Fallacies]

This is an interesting stylistic choice for an opening, but I'm not sure about the use of the present tense for the italicized parts.

To be honest, I'm not all that sure either. It felt suitable at the time. Chalk up any unclear bits to bad writing. Would it be better to modify?

Current concerns are that the scene clips aren't very well-integrated.

You've referenced a lot of series.  I don't recognize this one (or perhaps these ones).

Dragonball and Naruto.

I can see a scene with Ranma arriving too late, but I can't see a mere school door stopping him completely, only slowing him for a moment.

There's a reason to this, but it's a bit hard to explain right now.

These sound effects are more than a little obscure in meaning.

R&A:ALS

Who?

A minor character from an unpopular series. It would be best to regard him as an original lackey-type villain. He's not very important, and I doubt he'll reappear later.

[yukatado]

This certainly is an interesting beginning to a story. I'd love to read more of it. I liked your introductory vignette.

I'm not much for long critiques, uness I need to do a line-by-line, but it would seem I have caught nothing to comment on that has not already been caught before.

Keep up the good work.

[Edward]

This is an interesting stylistic choice for an opening, but I'm not sure about the use of the present tense for the italicized parts.

To be honest, I'm not all that sure either. It felt suitable at the time. Chalk up any unclear bits to bad writing. Would it be better to modify?

While I'm uncertain about the tenses, I would think about it before changing them.

Current concerns are that the scene clips aren't very well-integrated.

I didn't have a problem with that.

I can see a scene with Ranma arriving too late, but I can't see a mere school door stopping him completely, only slowing him for a moment.

There's a reason to this, but it's a bit hard to explain right now.

Fair enough.

These sound effects are more than a little obscure in meaning.

R&A:ALS

Okay, that didn't help.

Who?

A minor character from an unpopular series. It would be best to regard him as an original lackey-type villain. He's not very important, and I doubt he'll reappear later.

But he's got way too cool of an intro to not have him appear again later.

[thepanda]

Ranma & Akane: A Love Story.

[Edward]

I understood the abbreviation, though I have not read R&A:ALS.  The title made me far too worried about dying from insulin shock if I read it.

I still don't understand the quoted sound effects.

[Fallacies]

But he's got way too cool of an intro to not have him appear again later.

I'll take that as a vote to put him in again later ... ^^;;

I still don't understand the quoted sound effects.

It's a poke at the opening of R&A:ALS, which isn't so much an R&A pairup as ... well, a story that isn't about Ranma 1/2 at all.

[Brian]

Hey, R&A:ALS is awesome.

And this story is very interesting, too.  I'd like to see more of it to judge it, though ... especially since some parts of the fic seem ... oddly familiar to me.

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['I win ...' says a voice to nobody. Somewhere, eyes close.]