So I've been busy somewhat. Over the months since I finished the first draft of "In the Cold Rain," I've vacillated. I've gone back, tried to outline from scratch, change the ideas, work on other ideas (I did, as a matter of fact, make some work on Eclipse, and I could stand to do some work on The Color Red). Throughout this experience, I've felt I couldn't see the future clearly, that no matter what I did, I wasn't happy with what I felt might evolve organically from the story because it didn't fit the constraints I had on the story. And there are constraints. As a continuation piece, Identity must focus a lot on Ranma, I feel, which caused me to reject some ideas I had. I tried to make it overall tighter, but each idea was no clearer than the last.
In the end, I've decided to go with what I've got. Not the first draft--I do have improvements I can make to that--but the original outline I will largely stick to, until I reach a point where I can improve it and not merely run around in circles.
So that's where we stand, kids. Identity 01, "In the Cold Rain." Now working on act 3 of 5. Here's to the future.
