[FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma/SM] On A Clear Day You Can See Forever Chapter 21

[Mark MacKinnon]

David McMillan wrote:
> Mark MacKinnon wrote:
>   
>> Bert Miller wrote:
>>     
>>> HALLELUJAH!!!!
>>>       
>>     Can I get an AMEN, BRUTHAH??
>>     
>
> 	"Can I hear the list say AMEN!?"
>
>   
>>> You know, the above is really the only firm confirmation of this that 
>>> we have...
>>>       
>>     Well, at this point, yes.  Later, Ranma doesn't remember what 
>> happened after he manifested his power, so it stands to reason he missed 
>> this as well.  Unless your point is that this is a bit of a spoiler, 
>> which I can see since at this point you don't know Ranma wakes up hazy 
>> on the details.
>>     
>
> 	It just seemed a bit jarring to see something narrated which never
> happened on-camera.
>   
    Keep in mind that this did happen on camera.  Ranma and V were 
inside the stadium when the palace was attacked, so neither of them knew 
about it, berserker state notwithstanding.  V was shocked when  she saw 
the carnage in chapter 21, remember.

>   
>>     At the very least, Tux seems to have some link to Gaia.  With so 
>> much going on, Tux has gotten somewhat of the short shrift, but we 
>> should remember he was once a power in his own right, although not as 
>> much as the princess.
>>     
>
> 	But nobody to sneeze at, either.  Although I wonder how this interacts
> (if at all) with his connection to Travos....
>   
    Let's hope he isn't a jealous god.

>>>>      And then something grabbed her from behind.
>>>>   
>>>>         
>>> Heh.  Nice place to pause.
>>>       
>
> 	*I'd* pause after grabbing V, just to savor the sensation.
>   
    And she'd let you, which I totally dig about her.

>   
>>> I liked this passage.  You haven't really realized this Ranma's 
>>> baggage so concretely for us prior
>>> to this.
>>>       
>>     I don't want to have him wallowing in it, but when the defences are 
>> down nightmares still wait for him.  The guy has serious survivor issues.
>>     
>
> 	I honestly thought he was doing better lately, but it's easy to forget
> that he's only been hanging with Our Short-skirted Heroines for a week,
> if that.  Mina's definitely improved his condition, even in so short a
> time, but the improvements still have shallow roots.
> 	And if there's a route from Ranma as he is now to the empty-eyed Ranma
> in Rei's vision, I think we just caught a glimpse of it.
>   

    Yeah, it takes time to heal such deep wounds.  Time which he may not 
have ... dun dun DUNNNNN!

>
>
>   
>>>> vibrating like the wings of a hummingbird.  "Oh, gods, they killed
>>>> Professor Lewdine.  He tried to stop them.  With a coat rack.  He 
>>>> tried ...
>>>> they killed him."
>>>>         
>
> 	Aw, frakk.  I was really hoping Skip made it...
>   
    Wow.  Somebody liked Skip.  Besides me,  mean.

>
>   
>>     A whole palace full of nameless people is one thing.  Making them a 
>> little more human brings some perspective to what has happened.  All of 
>> them had names, and lives, and they're all gone.
>>     
>
> 	Gotta keep the readers from getting numbed somehow.  Which ain't easy,
> considering the sheer *scale* of the death&destruction going on around
> town right now....
>   
    I can never watch any anime with huge battle scenes without 
wondering about the property damage and all the people who get caught in 
the crossfire.  It's often glossed over, of course, but there are a 
whole lot of "extras" behind the scenes, and they're taking it on the 
chin.  And for some reason, they're all wearing red shirts.

>
>   
>>> Okay, let's pick at this hint you've thrown us.  Hypothesis one: 
>>> Wynneth instigated the Long
>>> Dark as a distraction for her murder of the Azakaru Queen, which she 
>>> carried out specifically
>>> for the purpose of drawing Shadow and the mortal plane closer 
>>> together, which she
>>> orchestrated specifically for the purpose we see at the end of this 
>>> chapter.  This seems the
>>> most probable.  Alternate hypothesis:  The Azakaru Queen is not dead; 
>>> she faked her
>>> murder, and is the voice behind Wynneth.  No, too speculative, and 
>>> unsatisfactory on
>>> other grounds.  Hypothesis one it is, then.
>>>       
>
>   
>>     It certainly seems that her death must have been a part of Wynneth's 
>> plan.  Being able to kill such a being, however, is no small feat.  I 
>> wonder if the Azakaru have blood?
>>     
>
> 	Just how many pieces does this plan *have,* anyway?  Belisarius would
> call Wynneth an amateur for indulging in such a grandiosely convoluted
> scheme... but OTOH, she's had *how many* millenia to set this up and
> guide it along?  Being able to vampirically make friends and influence
> people doesn't hurt, either.
>   
    The insidious aspects of her power may be the most important in that 
respect.  What if you could not only destroy your enemy, but make them 
love you unconditionally?  That's a scarier fate than death, I think, 
being not only made to serve, but made to like it.

>
>   
>>     No indeed.  Remember Rei's Shadow Magicks reference the Azakaru 
>> during ritual casting.  They have a very strong influence over the 
>> intangible, including ghosts and shades, shadows, and dreams.  Weakening 
>> their power may have been Wynneth's goal.  we'll just have to wait and see.
>>     
>
> 	Which raises another question:  are the Azakaru just taking this lying
> down?  What are *they* doing about all this?  Assuming, of course, that
> they've been able to figure out any of what's going on...
>   
    Depends on presently unknown factors, like what are the Azakaru, how 
many are they, what is their nature?  And what, ultimately, are their 
capabilities?

> 	Just how powerful *is* Wynneth, anyway?  If she could take out a
> cosmological power like the Azakaru queen, why would she need to jump
> through all these hoops to accomplish her (or the Voice's) goal?  My bet
> is that Wynneth found the Azakaru's Kryptonite, and slipped it into her
> tea or something.
>   
    She undoubtedly used guile to accomplish her goals, but as for 
jumping through hoops?  All that has to serve a purpose.  She has an 
ultimate goal in mind, and once it is revealed, presumably all this will 
make sense.  Or I will be lynched by an angry mob.  I'm going for the 
first one.

>   
>>     I think V would be hesitant to name someone a goddess, given that 
>> the pantheon of the divine is fairly well known.  It does become 
>> somewhat problematic, dealing with beings of great power, some of whom 
>> technically are gods (like Peorth) but who seem to be lower on the 
>> pecking order than the "official" gods.  Dragon, for instance, is not 
>> bothered by the gods.  Is he strong enough to be considered one 
>> himself?  Of course, none of this answers your question.  Not much has 
>> been mentioned of demons or angels, true, although both exist in some 
>> form ... we will learn more of this matter in the next 2 chapters.  
>> (Does anyone find it strange that we hear of the hells, and the old 
>> gods, but not of their demonic counterparts?)
>>     
>
> 	Now that you mention it... yes.
>   
    Some answers forthcoming next chapter.  Not all answers, never all 
the answers, but some.

>>     But Peorth was introduced as a character who can finally fill in 
>> some of the back story.  If she survives.  And ever shows up again.  
>> Mwah-hahahahaaa!
>>     
>
> 	What's worse, from the perspective of an author trying to maintain
> suspense, is that Peorth can probably answer a *lot* (though not all) of
> the questions underlying the meta-series -- like, what's the whatsis
> under stately Kuno manor, what is the Eye, what are the Eyes (my guess:
>   the DTF's spaceballs), what all the Key can do, and what the War was
> about and who was involved.  And maybe shed some light on who Rianna's
> boss is (for no real reason, I have a hunch that he is, or at least is
> connected to, Wynneth's Voice).
>   
    Like I say, I'm not intending to infodump all the answers to all the 
mysteries.  There must still be mystery, and suspense.  For that reason, 
Peorth and what she knows has to be handled fairly delicately.

> 	If Peorth survives and hangs around to be questioned, I'm betting that
> that will lead into the post-Clear Day story arc, which should
> eventually lead Ranma... er, Ranko... back to Nerima and his
> counterpart, thus closing the circle.
>   
    Maybe yes.  Maybe no.

>>> Interesting.  Just how old is Galiraithe?
>>>       
>
>   
>>     Another question which will be answered in the next chapter.
>>     
>
> 	Galiraithe was made from the remains of an Aesir ship, judging from the
> hints.  Aesir tech is presumably derived from the same underlying tech
> that made the Keys.  Everything we've seen suggests that there's some
> degree of resonance between the Key and any Aesir tech in the vicinity.
> 	Of course, it seems that Galiraithe has *some* degree of intelligence
> -- I wonder what *part* of the ship it was regforged from?
> 	And... just *where* has Galiraithe *been* the last fourteen years?  I
> can't imagine that the answer is totally irrelevant...
>   
    Gotta love those magick swords.  And the great thing about this 
universe is that there are plenty of places for something to hang out 
for fourteen years and not be found.  Or fourteen hundred, for that matter.

>
>   
>>     If you're the queen, you don't expect to run into people who've 
>> never heard of you.  In fact, she probably wishes some days that she 
>> could be just some woman.  Now, for a little while, she gets her wish 
>> ... and thus doesn't hold a grudge.
>>     
>
> 	Not to mention, Ranma's hawt, Gaeans have sex on the brain even in
> life-or-death situations, and even Kendra probably isn't immune to the
> Saotome Effect.
>   
    King Ranma.  I like it.

>
>>>>     "Remarkable."   For the first time since I'd met her, the shadows
>>>> seemed to retreat fully from Kendra's eyes.  "You actually lived through
>>>> that time, nearly eight thousand years ago!
>>>>         
>>> Huh.  That's double what I had down as a tentative timeline.  Of 
>>> course, I was going for minimums.
>>> Which would seem to mean that when Ami said that the Genrous' empire 
>>> lasted a long time (in chapter
>>> nine), she meant several times my tentative one thousand years.
>>>       
>
> 	Actually a lot *shorter* than I was thinking.  But I usually peg the
> "canonical" Silver Millenium as being on the close order of 50k years
> ago, to provide enough time for all the artifacts that would give
> archaeologists fits time to decay, and for a civilization smashed down
> to hunter-gatherer level to rebuild with no memory of what went before.	
> 	But on Gaea, the existence of the White Moon seems to be a known and
> acknowledged fact, so the shorter timeline is feasible.
>   
    Yes, in this universe, the White Moon Court, while cloaked in myth, 
is known to have existed.  There is some discussion of the time period 
after the fall of the White Moon and before the rise of the Genrous in 
the next chapter.  Artifacts from that time can and do still exist in 
this world, so the time period needed to be not so out of sight.

>
>   
>>     Yeah, but she's a woman.  She just lied about her age, man.  ^_^    
>> Obviously, she hid the truth from the other vampires.  Maybe she even 
>> manipulated them.  Who can say?  Oh, yeah, me.  Right.  More on her role 
>> in the Long Dark in the next few chapters.
>>     
>
> 	This plot gets much thicker, we'll be able to walk on it....
>   
    We aim to please.  We don't always succeed, but aim we do.

>   
>
> 	Oh, now *that* raises some *scary* speculation.  Not so much that
> Wynneth wants/needs the Senshi for something (she definitely needs
> Hotaru, and she at least wants the rest), but that *Wynneth* might have
> been the one to arrange for their reincarnation.  Which suggests she
> might have had a hand in Beryl's return, as well.
> 	I'll say it again:  just how freaking powerful *is* this creature?
>   
    Well, that's the question, isn't it?  If they keep treating her as 
just another blood-sucker, our heroes may be in for an unpleasant 
surprise or two.

>>> seemed genuinely intrigued.  "Hey, is it true your people actually found
>>> Now, from most authors, this detail would just be lending your story 
>>> color and verisimilitude,
>>> but knowing you, this old spaceport is going to play a key role in the 
>>> plot eventually.
>>>       
>
> 	"Bang, zoom!  To the MOON, Ranma!"
>   
    Ah, the early astronauts!

>   
>>     Feh.  That old spaceport?  A more vile den of scum and villainy 
>> you'll ... sorry.  Wrong spaceport.
>>     
>
> 	Wardens with lightsabers?  The Reality War was actually the culmination
> of the Jedi/Sith conflict?  Buried at Carnica, just waiting for someone
> with the right Key, is the fastest starship ever to make the Kessel Run?  :D
>   
    Yeah, well, she may not look like much, but I've made a lot of 
modifications to her myself ... damn, I've seen that movie too many 
times.  <cough> Han shot first <cough>

>   
> 	...huh?  Aside from Dasma, when have we ever gotten any physical
> descriptions of the Dark Gods?
> 	Now, I *have* wondered if Yuu was the local version of Jadeite, freed
> from his brainwashing, but....
>
>   
>>> whatever (real) reason,
>>> and still aren't giving us any reason to believe they're not fully 
>>> human.  Red herrings?
>>> Or Divine Deep Cover?
>>>       
>
> 	I *must* have missed a memo -- I have No Idea what you're hinting at,
> or where it's coming from.
>   
    Sometimes a cop is just a cop.

>   
>>    
>
> 	Hmm... do Wardens detect dark or inimical energies, or do they pick up
> on stuff that specifically interdimensional in nature?
>   
    Good question.  Given what Wardens have power over, it seems likely 
that they'd be more attuned to dimensional disturbances than just any 
old trouble, but the full extent remains to be explored.

>   
>>> I think not!  Seriously, though, Mars brought up the point about the 
>>> Old City being a reason
>>> for the vampire to pick Saeni way back in chapter 9, but so far we 
>>> haven't seen the Old City's
>>> proximity play any part in the plan.  It's about time.
>>>       
>
>   
>>     Oh, we'll be seeing more of its role soon ...
>>     
>
> 	Why does that NOT give me a warm fuzzy feeling?
>   
    Because you read chapters 1 to 20.

>
>   
>>     Yeah.  I don't know that I'd call it genius-level, really, more like 
>> putting the pieces together.  Ranma still prefers fighting to heavy 
>> thinking, but he has become a more internal person over the years, for 
>> better or worse.  The key's effects are more prodding than anything else.
>>     
>
> 	Besides, Ranma's always been good at reading his enemy's moves.  With a
> little help, it's not unfeasible to extend that to this kind of
> strategic perception.
>   
    Exactly.  He's got kind of a genius for that sort of thing.

>   
>>> By the way, we've never been told where the Old City came from, have 
>>> we?  Or how old it is?
>>>       
>
> 	Old.  Capital "O."  How much more do you need to know?  :D
>
>   
>>     No, because nobody in the story so far has any idea.  But you will 
>> find out next chapter.
>>     
>
> 	Again, not giving me a warm fuzzy feeling.
> 	...now, *why* did the locals start *calling* it "The Old City"?  There
> has to be a reason.
>   
    Because it sounds menacing?  And looks good on the tourist brochures.

>   
>>>>      "These trailers are the sort used to transport heavy equipment.
>>>> Like, for instance, a Bander armoured car and a Massovelli Waterbug."
>>>>         
> 	
> 	I KNEW it!!!!
>
>   
>>> Heh.  And yet another apparently-irrelevant detail from several 
>>> chapters ago now proves
>>> important.  Seriously, man, you should go into professional mystery 
>>> writing.
>>>       
>
> 	It's this kind of thing that makes Mark's readers go crawling through
> his stories for the nth time with a microscope, looking for any hidden
> clues.  For instance, did you ever notice that Yuu and Usagi take their
> coffee the same way?  This Means Something, I'm telling you!
>   
    It means I'm making you all insane?  Wait, Yu and Usagi are also 
both blondes.  And have we ever seen them together?  Hmmmmm ....

>   
>>     I'm glad you appreciate these little touches.  They'd probably be 
>> more effective if they hadn't appeared in a chapter over two years ago, 
>> though.  It's like trying to watch season 2 of Lost or something.
>>     
>
> 	Ooooh, *burn.*   :)
> 	OTOH, do you know how many times I've reread chapters 1-20 over the
> last two years?  Don't answer that, if you do it'll creep me out.  Not
> to mention proving how little of a life I have....  ANYway, my point is
> that we get to obsessively re-read the old chapters while waiting for
> the new ones, which offsets the problem.
>   
    It's easy to forget details from early in the story, which is why I 
wish I could release faster.  I read the chapters so many times before 
publishing them that I'm pretty sick of them, but the real problem is 
when I forget that I edited something out and try to make reference to 
it in a later chapter.  Minor things, but it happens more often than 
you'd think.

>
>   
>>     Or maybe it doesn't so much lead somewhere as bring something in.  
>>     
>
> 	Master Pharoah 90?  I *knew* Wynneth looked like Mistress 9!
> 	Hmmm... it now occurs to me that no one seems to notice any family
> resemblance between Hotaru and Wynneth, now that they finally lay eyes
> on the vampiress.  I guess my speculation about Wynneth possibly being
> Hotaru's actual mother back in the Millenium may not hold water....
>   
    Well, you seen one willowy pale beauty with long medusa hair, you 
seen 'em all, I guess.  But a better question might be, given the 
discrepancy between the appearance of the senshi and their civilian 
forms, would Wynneth more resemble Hotaru or Saturn?

>   
>> Or unleash something.  These magick circles are fairly common for 
>> high-level spells in this world.  ( Actually, I was thinking of an 
>> example, but you haven't read it yet, so never mind.  D'oh!)
>>     
>
> 	...I HATE it when you do that.  ;)
>
>   
>>>>      "Right," I said.  "But isn't that ...?"
>>>>      "Nemesis," V finished for me.
>>>>         
>
> 	Time to head for the nearest karaoke bar and start singing "Bad Moon on
> the Rise."
>   
    What?  It isn't "Bathroom on the Right?"

>   
>>     She brought back the darkness, and our heroes assume that was her 
>> ultimate goal.  Which makes sense for a vampire, but is a big blind spot 
>> for them, because she 's still going, like a gorgeous, evil energizer bunny.
>>     
>
> 	...good point.  Long Dark 2.0 obviously isn't her final goal.  She
> keeps talking about becoming a goddess, but she almost seems to have
> that kind of power already.  Now, the Voice's plans, OTOH...
>   
    A goddess needs worshippers, though.  The more, the merrier.

>>     I wondered why nobody commented on that at the time.  I expected 
>> some shock or intrigue at the revelation.  Maybe they thought it was 
>> more metaphorical, like "daughter of my blood".  Well, it wasn't.  Ha!
>>     
>
> 	Consider it a compliment to your skills at misdirection.
>   
    Ironic, since I wasn't trying to misdirect anyone.  That time.

>   
>>> Now, where have Wynneth and Saekianna gone?  "Far from the inhabited 
>>> planes" makes it sound like
>>> this is inside "this last, lonely sphere", just far away.  So what's 
>>> the point?  And is the Voice's physical
>>> body (assuming it has one) with them?
>>>       
>>     I wonder ...
>>     
>
> 	Doesn't sound like anyplace we've seen to date.
>   
    Bingo.

>   
>>>>      Scattered shards of dark crystal.
>>>>   
>>>>         
>>> The remnants of the fake Banri, I presume?
>>>       
>>     Hmm.  What do we know that's made of dark crystal?
>>     
>
> 	Osiren Black, and Dasma's coffin.  The Osirens seem pretty durable,
> even in Dragon's opinion, so my money's on the latter.  Which leads to
> the question of just *what* that crystal control module did...
>   
    Gar obviously thought it would be something good, or at least useful.

>   
>>> Now for some speculation:  I've been assuming all along the the Eye 
>>> resides in this sphere.  In fact,
>>> for a long time I assumed that the Eye was, in fact, Nemesis (the 
>>> first home of the Gods when they
>>> came to Gaia).  This now looks unlikely.  But if the Eye isn't to play 
>>> a key role, then what's so
>>> special about this sphere?  Or, put another way, if the Eye IS in this 
>>> sphere, then WHY did the
>>> keymakers (presumably) build it here?  And, if the Eye ISN'T in this 
>>> sphere, why did snapping the
>>> hyperlinks to it stop the spread of chaos?
>>>       
>
> 	Now that's an angle I never thought of.  I always thought that Illianka 
> was saving *this* sphere, expecting all the rest to be destroyed or 
> taken over, and that the larger multiverse from which Ranma and the DTF 
> come survived by chance, or by an unforseen side effect of Illianka's 
> sacrifice.  But if the "geography" of the multiverse makes Gaea some 
> sort of choke point...
>   
    Interesting.

>   
>>     Good questions.
>>     
>
> 	Bad answer.  :)
>
>   
>
>   
>>     Oh, a very good point.  What is Outside, after all?  And if the 
>> Wardens were fighting against it, does it make sense that Ranma is 
>> really what they would have called an Outsider?
>>     
>
> 	I suspect most of us took "outsider" as being a Gaean-centric term, 
> given the source.  Of course, that *could* have just been another case 
> of deft Authorial Misdirection (pay no attention to that red herring on 
> the mantelpiece, it's not relevant, oh no...).
>   
    That?  That herring's not red.  Just a little crimson is all.

>   
>>> Suppose the Eye was placed in this sphere because this sphere is on 
>>> the border with Outside?
>>> Then the chaos that threatened All That Is with apparent destruction 
>>> in the distant past may NOT
>>> have been generated from inside this sphere, say from a broken Eye, as 
>>> it appeared, but it may
>>> have come THROUGH this sphere, and been generated Outside.
>>>       
>
> 	But then there's still the question of what's under Kuno mansion.  It 
> didn't seem awesome enough to be the Eye, and Rianna referred to it a a 
> Nexus Point, but it's obviously connected to the Eye somehow...
>
>   
>>     The truth shall be revealed.  Soon.
>>     
>
> 	You mean we *finally* get answers?  Hooray!!  :D
>   

    The biggest problem would be if, after all the build-up, folks said, 
"What?  That's it?  Huh.  What a let down."  That would be a writer's 
biggest fear in a case like this.  I mean a lesser writer's.  Cause I'm 
not worried.  Nope.
> All this would mean also that the real Outsider is now a prime 
> candidate for the identity of
> the voice behind Wynneth.  And if that's true, then Wynneth herself 
> may not return from her
> little trip (or, at least, as herself, assuming she's ever really been 
> herself other than momentarily).
>   
>
>   
>>     Interesting.
>>     
>
> 	The author is a Vorlon, I'm telling you!
>   

    We are all Kosh.  Kosh MacKinnon.  Ach, ye wee shadow beasties!  Be 
goon wi' ye!
>   
>>     That too shall be made clear, probably by chapter 24 at the latest.  
>> Almost there, folks.
>>     
>
> 	24.  Wow.  I remember thinking a few chapters back that the story 
> *must* be hitting its end by Baniesti, and there were too many plot 
> elements in play to clean up in such a short time.  Now, of course, it 
> looks like Baniesti was only the beginning of the big fight, not the climax.
>   

    But there is a plan, and the end is in sight.  So stay tuned!
>
>
>
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