In the night sky, there's a set of stars, known, in some languages, as the Herdsman. The brightest star is Arcturus, the Bear Guard. To the west, however, is a dimmer neighbor, the "lonely hunter," the "particular one." This star is known as Muphrid.
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Borking with layouts (I do this a lot) |
So, you may have noticed some changes. (Wait, people read this blog?) I played around with templates and layouts and html and stuff and managed to put some of the changes I like into the mix: there's a +/- that allows you to expand and contract posts (I may end up only putting this on label pages again), and well...
If you're on the main page this is hidden by the read more link, so there's more here, too.
Anyway, these little tweaks put my mind at ease.
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Echoes 19 - “Resurrection and Life” - Outline |
Every chapter since the beginning of the second half of Echoes has seen me take the outline I wrote out and redo it from scratch. Well, not from scratch per se, for I replicate exactly some of the scenes. I think that's the difference, for me, between a scene and a full act/part or chapter in its entirety. I think a lot of people start with the scenes they see, but to make a coherent story, you have to connect those scenes with things you don't see. You need to fill in the gaps. I think the common mistake is to leave too little room to fill those gaps.
But making these outlines is a highly iterative process. I think I see each chapter as an opportunity to refine characterization. I've toned down Nakamura's stupidity a lot with this revision of the outline, and that's a good thing, but the core emotions are still there, and that's important. It remains to be seen how far I deviate from this outline (I deviated quite a bit near the end of "Sons," if only for reasons of pacing).
At any rate, I now present the outline for "Resurrection and Life," so that I may later comment on the changes I make as I go through the writing process. I'm still debating whether I will post the different sections of this chapter as I go. Anyway, spoilers below and if you don't wish to see them, I would be open to suggestions as to how to best present information to the interested (Bueller?) or if it's even a good idea to do this at all. Once again, SPOILERS BELOW.
Teaser: Flashback: Nakamura Hideki sneaks into Masuyo’s bedroom and places Imi’s PET on Masuyo’s desk. Masuyo awakens to Imi’s prodding, and the two seem genuinely pleased to meet each other. Masuyo hurries to get ready for school, but she stumbles as her legs give way under her. She’s fine, though, and they move on. It’s Imi’s first day of being alive.
Act 1: Yuuichirou prepares for Netto’s arrival, marveling at how long it’s been since he was here, in this lab. For a long time, he’s put on hold the idea of bringing Saito back to life. Now he realizes he has an even bigger job: bringing him back to the life he has already. His boys have left behind normal life for these past two months, and it’s his job as a father to restore that, even if he doesn’t know how, even if these two bodies in tanks will ever be used. He quickly puts these thoughts aside, however, as Netto and Meiru are at the gate and will be here soon.
And it’s a strange homecoming for Netto and Meiru. It’s almost as if they’re not really home at all; the very face of the city is different, having endured much while he’s been gone. They catch glimpses of old friends like Dekao, but even still they’re reluctant to come out yet. It’s not over, and they both know that. At mention of Meiru’s betrayal, Netto is conspicuously silent, and he says nothing more until they’re inside the facility.
Yuuichirou greets them both and begins preparations for the procedure, and Meiru has to sit outside, thinking, waiting. After a while, Netto comes out. He’s fine; they won’t know until Rockman is reinitialized. He confesses that at least now, while Rockman is sleeping, he can speak more freely. Meiru immediately apologizes again for having deceived him, and Netto is forgiving. How can he be anything other than forgiving when that’s all his brother wants too? He expresses hope that when Rockman awakens they’ll be able to go out again, but Meiru doesn’t want them to. She says they’ve been through enough, she doesn’t want either one of them to die. Netto only assures her that he’s not going anywhere. The conversation turns to friendly bickering…but that’s when he hears Rockman. At least, a little.
Inside the lab, Rockman reports that he can feel Netto, but they don’t hear each other unless they really try to. Yuuichirou is disappointed, but it’s an improvement, and he has to be pleased with improvement. While Rockman is anxious to get back into the fight, Yuuichirou takes him aside and tries to work out his feelings, tries to be a father, but Rockman is still trapped in thoughts about what he’s done and how it’s affected everyone. That’s when Netto barges in and tells his brother he is forgiven for what he’s thought and done, that Rockman can stop worrying. Netto didn’t need to be there to hear the conversation first hand—he simply knew, even without the link to tell him. Netto resolves to rejoin Enzan in Choina and help him protect Nakamura.
Act 2: Flashback: Imi and Masuyo at dinner with Hideki, where Imi cheerfully explains all the things she learned at school from Masuyo and her classmates, including mimicking Masuyo’s sensei’s words about the appropriateness of little girls having PETs at such a young age. Hideki is impressed with her ability, and Masuyo seems quite pleased to have such an advanced navi and friend. The dinner is cut short, however, when Masuyo retires to her room, ostensibly not very hungry. Imi recommends that she finish her food, as she learned it’s rude not to clear your plate, but Hideki excuses this and allows Masuyo to rest. He speaks with Imi, and she’s gushing about how wonderful Masuyo is. She’s happy here. She couldn’t be happier.
Nor could she be in reality. Imi and Codey enjoy many hours of games, talking about their father. Codey hints that Imi should go seek their father out, but she just won’t get the hint. She’s too excited about not having to worry to care, and Codey really doesn’t want to shatter his sister’s happiness, even though he feels the bug getting to him. Time is short, and he feels the effects of the bug debilitating him. Imi picks up on these signs, and she’s immediately concerned. She departs before he can even get a word in edgewise.
Meanwhile, Enzan is in Choina, on the phone with Laika, who’s with the others at a hospital in Namaste. Laika is actually somewhat unscathed compared to their companions, some of whom have serious injuries. They note that it’s better this way; it should be easier to keep Nakamura hidden with only Enzan to protect him anyway, but Laika is concerned they’re vulnerable here in Namaste. No sooner does he say this than Imi barges into the hospital, noting how easy it was to find them. Her request is surprisingly tame: Codey is sick, and she needs to bring him to their father to look at. Enzan quickly picks up that she doesn’t know she’s infected as well and decides to use this to their advantage. He gives her an address to bring Codey to and heads back to see Nakamura.
Who is struggling. He looks at his watch and sees the time ticking away. The thought of his two navis both dying is dredging up memories of Masuyo’s passing, and it’s hindering his work. Enzan urges him to pull it together, but he’s going way off the deep end. “I didn’t even tell him I loved him, do you know that?” It’s only thanks to Enzan that he can regain the focus to get working and solve what is, in his mind, is a simple problem. He still approaches the upcoming reunion with Imi and Codey as something to fear, but he’s grateful that things are moving forward.
Imi drags Codey to the meeting point, and he ponders whether to tell her the truth. Imi, for her part, is afraid. While Papa wouldn’t possibly use this to try to subdue her, Enzan and the others might. At the least, they couldn’t afford to give up the opportunity. She’s understandably cautious, but Codey’s progressive deterioration is forcing her to give up some of that caution. Codey, however, can guess that they want both him and Imi, and he tries to persuade her to stay with him, but now Imi is getting suspicious, and Codey realizes that being alone with her makes his situation very dangerous. Finally, he follows her request, but Imi is now too curious to let him go so easily. Codey departs, and Imi, in a moment of weakness, listens to the choir: she decides to follow.
Act 3: Flashback: Masuyo in her wheelchair at the arcade. Her drawing pad is tucked away behind her wheelchair, as she is unable to hold the pencil steady, but still, with Imi in tow, she’s eager to try something that she hasn’t done before: a net battle. The two of them watch Hikawa Tohru practicing with Iceman against some formidable but defeated opponents, and they try their luck against the pair. Hideki watches from the crowd, silently rooting for his daughter and her navi, despite Imi’s confusion over what she should do or how she can even retaliate without attacks of her own. Still, thrust into the ring, Imi defends herself as best she can with Masuyo’s new set of battle chips, but Masuyo’s coordination fails, and Imi is defenseless…until she erects an Ice Cube of her own to counter Iceman’s. The crowd turns in her favor, and she begins to copy Iceman’s abilities with ease, turning them against him, even the chips. In her inexperience, Imi loses the battle, but the crowd and Masuyo are very impressed with their performance. Even still, Imi finds the crowd and the mass of people unsettling. They’re all looking at her. At times, they were cheering. It dazzled her, it frightened her, and she herself doesn’t quite understand how she managed to copy Iceman’s abilities.
As Imi begins to follow Codey discreetly, Masuyo and Roll have a dilemma. The sense that tragedy is about to strike is palpable—the choir feels it, Imi feels it. With Codey and Hideki at stake, Masuyo is unwilling to sit back and watch again. The choir has power over her, and while Roll has been able to thwart Imi from time to time, it’s never been enough. They need more. They need the choir.
And so Roll ventures amongst the shadows, where Imi cannot hear clearly. At first, she doesn’t know what to say. The shapeless, formless figures remind her of her own time here, when it was easier just to go along with the flow, with the collective will of lost souls, but she also knows the poison these dead whisper into Imi’s ears, and she begins to swell with righteous indignation. They are as much responsible for Imi’s madness as Imi is herself. She berates them, yet they seem to ignore her pleas, and the situation is starting to look hopeless. As Roll is about to give up, however, a voice calls from the darkness… “Roll-chan…”
Codey arrives at the meeting point, much to Enzan and Hideki’s disappointment. He explains the situation to them, that Imi doesn’t know she’s infected too and that he needs to go back and explain, but Imi is listening. “Papa, Codey-kun…how could you do this to me?”
Act 4: Flashback: Masuyo is on her bed, dying, and Imi is trying hard to keep the girl awake and conscious, but Masuyo comforts her and assures her that all will be all right. Their father is grief-stricken, but Masuyo is tranquil and calm. She’s excited to see her mother; she just wished she could do it with her father in the real world, and not without him in the afterlife. Masuyo passes on, and Hideki laments that he will never see his daughter smile again, but that’s when Imi makes her mistake: she consoles her father by giving him what pleased him most. “It’s all right, Papa,” she says in Masuyo’s voice, with her eyes and smile. “I’ll always be with you; I’ll always smile.”
But Imi’s not smiling at all. As she challenges both Codey and Hideki to explain this, Enzan raises a dimensional area and steps in before she can strike, but she bats him away easily. Hideki picks up his laptop and his PET with Codey inside and runs, but Imi is hot on the trail.
And the choir is cheering her on. Though Roll is urging them to desist, to listen to her, they stubbornly plow on, cheering the carnage, the destruction of buildings and loss of life. Rockman has emerged from the choir, however, and he stands with her. This brings out other individuals: Grove, Slateman, Mazeman, Rouletteman. Sonicman and Pickman too. They all tell their stories, their horrors. They lost the will to live and as such, there must be others there, so they can do the same, so they won’t be alone. But Egami is here, too, and she makes an appeal to Grove. Roll persuades all of them to give up their selfish need for vengeance, and for a moment, they decide they can lend their support, control Imi. Not under Masuyo’s leadership or anyone else’s but Roll’s.
Hideki flees, but Imi’s after him, and Enzan’s harassing her. All Imi can see is blood, though. The choir is oddly quiet, but she doesn’t care. It was bad enough for Papa to condemn her; that she felt she could reverse. Now he’d betrayed her, he and Codey, her only family, and all that time when they were playing Codey never let on. Maybe he wanted her to die. But it doesn’t matter. She’ll destroy everything in her path; let the world burn. Then she’ll get Papa, and she’ll make him regret it. Regret making her, regret everything, even if she has to push him to the brink of death to do it. She punches through the laptop, shattering it and the cure along with it, but just as she winds up to strike, Roll intervenes, commanding the whole of the choir against her. Imi panics, realizing that she could never persuade them to leave her alone, but now Roll has united them, and she cannot disobey. She runs away.
Act 5: In the aftermath, Hideki awakens on a stretcher, being carted off in an ambulance. He gets up. He runs. He can’t find Codey, can’t find him anywhere, and his laptop is shattered, broken. Somewhere in the rubble he thinks he hears Codey, but he digs and digs until his fingers bleed. He finds the PET, but his watch alarm is ringing. Codey’s time is already up, and when he uncovers the PET, there’s nothing inside. Rather than go back, go to the hospital, he runs. He needs a place to grieve for Codey.
Just like he ran before. Just like when Imi tried to replace Masuyo, all he could do was sit there and order her out and cry over Masuyo’s body.
And Imi, for her part, is lost in confusion. She’s in despair. She’s angry; she’s upset. She’s afraid. Roll’s power now means she has a visible, intelligent enemy in her own mind, not the faceless musings of the choir. That’s when Codey arrives, weak, stumbling. He can hardly speak, but he whispers that Hideki was trying to dig him out then stopped. Despite their distrust, Imi holds Codey one more time, and he dies in her arms. Knowing this to be her fate, knowing that her father is nowhere to be found, Imi finally asks herself what she should do, and Masuyo has but one answer: “Go back home.”
As Netto and Rockman are going out the door to meet her, Yuuichirou gets a call. Imi’s returned to Densan, and now Netto and Rockman can face her together.
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Echoes 18 - "Sons" - and author's notes |
Chapter Eighteen, "Sons," on FanFiction.net
Something I've realized while writing Echoes is that I've involved a lot of characters. Some might view that as detracting from the story--it takes away focus from the characters that are important. Something that comes to mind immediately is the two-part section of "Pilgrimage" where Laika and Pride go to Japan. In a chapter that's already 23k words, there might be good reason to cut it and tighten the plot somewhat. However, I also think that this story should be broad and scope. You see, those two acts showed us something besides getting the gang together to go fight Imi: they showed what happens to Japan when Netto isn't around to defend it. They showed the breakdown of society when a hero is called away, and I felt that was important. That might be an advantage of my writing structure--each chapter being, in essence, its own story as a part of a whole.
I think that was in the back of my mind as I wrote "Sons." In the end, I may have a lot of polishing to do. I've had to play kind of loosely with the passage of time to get Netto to Namaste and the safe house in an appropriate timeframe. Characters spend some time thinking by themselves, and not for only short passages either. Something that occurred to me while cruising the net was the word angst. In the context of my story, I hadn't thought about it much before. I try to write characters realistically, and sometimes to see a different side of them, you need to put them close to the edge--the limits of their sanity, the brink of emotional stability. In some definitions, that causes angst. Do I write angst? It's possible I do. It's possible the word has acquired a narrower meaning, specifically to mean emotions that might otherwise be considered overindulgent or trivial. There's a fine line between angst and drama. I don't know how well I walk it, straddle it, or stray from it.
I struggled a lot with the major conflicts. How do I get Meiru to switch Netto's Synchro Chip without it coming off as totally idiotic? How do I get Codey to stay behind (a) with a disease to infect Imi and (b) to stay without his father? How do I treat Rockman's whole reaction to these things? In the end, I toned them down a lot because the reactions I had originally imagined just got too far into the category of needlessly dumb or vindictive. Rockman doesn't attack anyone for taking away his chance at heroic sacrifice. Meiru's fear is largely based on what might happen with Netto and Rockman in Cross Fusion, and it's just unfortunate that Netto feels the same and wants to talk it out with Imi before going there. What was Hideki's idea now becomes Codey's, and he's the one who comes up with the gift, the one who volunteers to stay behind as a stopgap and make Imi come into line. How this affects the power of these decisions...I'll have to give some thought.
Echoes is almost over now. I actually can't wait for it to be done; I'd like to finish, and I'd like to get to work on something new. Identity, of course, or maybe Eclipse if that doesn't pan. It's strange; my whole fad of Rockman has come...and gone. I've been very much into Ranma of late, and I can't help but think that by the time I get to finishing another story all the way, I'll be on something else. Even still, I do feel the pulse of the story I'm telling (although I admit I may have had to search for it again), and I'm glad that "Sons" has turned out, on the whole, quite well. Maybe not what I expected coming into it, but quite well.
Chapter Nineteen is "Resurrection and Life." Considering the changes I made here in "Sons," I'll have to rework some of the reactions, but I have ideas on that. We're finally going to get to see the event that started this: Masuyo's death and Imi's abandonment. Netto and Rockman are going to be separated, too, which takes a real monkey off my back. Writing characters that are linked and broadcasting full time is tough, and it kind of puts a barrier to getting in their heads too far because, well, you have to consider the other's reactions. There are times when that simply isn't convenient or detracts, so sometimes I ignored it. Sometimes, I worked it in and the scene was the better for it, but other times, I played the middle between these two. At any rate, without talking too much about the next chapter, I get to work. I expect to finish 19 in about two weeks, like the others. I suspect it may be shorter, like "Savage Memory," but it might not. So might the last chapter, "The Prodigal Daughter." We'll see.
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An Introduction to Ranma 1/2 |
Eventually, I think I'm going to write a Ranma fanfic. The story will be called Identity, and it will be similar in size and scope to Echoes, but obviously the Rockman EXE anime and Ranma are very different creatures; what matters to the characters is simply...well, different. Rockman is a very narrow fandom, I know, and it also has several canons to choose from (game or anime or manga, classic or EXE or X or Zero or Legends...I mean, on and on and on). Ranma, however, is very popular, even now, and there's really just one source to it. I like to think that a Ranma novel would be accessible to a broad section of people, and as such, I think it fitting to write, essentially, an introduction to Ranma, so people who are not necessarily versed in the canon can still read what I (hope to) do with a basic understanding of it.
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Echoes 18 - "Sons" (Part One) |
This is a small test to try out an idea I had of posting chapters (or parts of chapters, since my chapters are long) here to the blog. What I notice immediately, however, is that to make it work, I have to convert everything to html (not a surprise, I was planning this already) but also strip out all the actual (not html) newlines. Joy. Anyway, I leave this up to see how it looks.
As sunrise broke over Ameroupe, four figures walked across the bustling airport terminal. Actually, only three of them walked, for the fourth they pushed along in a wheelchair. They strode boldly through the squares of golden sun that streaked from the windows. They had only their mission, and nothing would stop them.
“We won’t be helpless again.”
They halted at the security checkpoint, and Yuuichirou retrieved the boarding passes from his coat. “Here you are, Meiru-chan, and this one is yours, Netto.”
“But oji-san,” said Meiru, “what about you? And Yaito-chan—”
“You two don’t need me there,” said Yaito. “I’m in enough trouble already; the Net Police are going to come down hard on me for this. It’s my fault Imi knows where Enzan and the others went.”
“And Papa?” asked Netto.
“I’m going back home, son,” said Yuuichirou. “I think I’ve made a breakthrough regarding you and Saito. I’m going back to Japan to try it out, and I hope, when this is done, you’ll be able to come back home, too. Both of you.”
Netto nodded. “I promise I’ll bring him back this time.” He pressed on the armrests, lifting himself, but his knees still wobbled under his weight. Meiru propped him up, however, and he offered his boarding pass and ID to the guard.
“Well,” said Meiru, looking between Yuuichirou and Yaito, “we’ll see each other again, right?”
“Actually…” Yuuichirou fished through his pockets. “There’s something I have for you, Meiru-chan.”
“What’s that?”
Yuuichrou glanced over her shoulder, at Netto. “Why don’t you go ahead to the retinal scanner?” he said. “Meiru-chan will be with you shortly.”
Netto obeyed without question, shuffling his feet slightly as they dragged.
“What’s the—”
A small, cold piece of metal touched her palm. Meiru examined the chip, and it bore a familiar green disc in the middle.
“A Synchro Chip?”
“Not exactly,” said Yuuichirou. “It’s a fake.”
“A fake?”
“I didn’t get the chance while he was awake,” said the scientist. “I didn’t have the idea until after Imi came and left, but…you heard what I said. I’d like both Saito and Netto to come home this time. I think I can separate them. We have the data; we just need the both of them there.”
“So why don’t you—”
“Do you think Rockman would come willingly?”
Meiru blinked for a moment. “I’m not sure.”
“Neither am I, nor is Netto, but I think, like with Imi before, Saito will come back to the PET if he needs Netto’s help, and he will. They can’t use Cross Fusion without it.”
She held the chip up to the light, and it glimmered in the sun.
“It’s a trick,” she said. “It’s a trap; it’ll keep him there!”
“That’s right.”
“And Netto…” She looked down the checkpoint, where a red diode shined in Netto’s eye. “He can’t know, can he? Then Rockman would, too.”
“I leave the decision in your hands, Meiru-chan,” said Yuuichirou. “If you think there’s a better way…”
She nodded, but her fingers wrapped around the chip and hid it in her purse without another word.
“Good luck!” said Yaito.
Meiru showed her ID and boarding pass to the guard, who let her through, and when they finished scanning her eye, she met up with Netto beyond the x-ray machines. He held his hand out, and though it trembled slightly, he bore a warm smile.
“Shall we go?”
Meiru took his hand, but she dared not respond, lest her voice give away any hint of betrayal.
Three hours.
For three hours, the Cross Fusion Members holed themselves up in the safe house, peeking only through blinds and over windowsills. For three hours, Imi sat beyond the dimensional area. Sometimes she walked, yawned, but more often than not, she stared straight ahead, as if her gaze pierced the walls, but all the same, she waited.
And so did the Members. They played cards to candlelight, for Enzan worried about their power situation. It was bad enough they were sinking watt after watt into the converters downstairs. Granted, a few hundred watts for lightbulbs would probably be trivial at that point, but still, he was cautious. Besides, the glow of the dimensional area provided a fair bit of light, though its shimmering turned his stomach sometimes.
The truth of the matter was…it all reduced to simple mathematics. They had generators to make power, a battery reserve to story it, and converters and everything else in the house using it. Subtract generation from consumption, divide it out of stored energy. Energy over power equals time, after all, and how much time did they have?
A day. Maybe a day and a half, depending on the estimate. Running dimensional converters for all 86,400 seconds in the day was ill-advised, to say the least. If they didn’t give out before then…well, it didn’t matter. That would just be fortune smiling on them.
Enzan hated relying on fortune. It was totally antithetical to his philosophy. His style of combat was all about control and calculation. There was no way he’d let this ordeal come down to the wire. Imi had to know this was no stalemate; for now, she had the advantage, and it was his job, his duty, to reverse that. He needed to be proactive. He needed to see Nakamura.
Instead, he saw Rockman, and it was all he could do to hold his tongue and keep from berating the navi for giving them away again, whether it was his fault or not. Oh, when they got back home, Enzan would have the Ayanokoujis’ corporate empire on a funeral pyre and spread the ashes along the black beaches of Jawaii. She was always meddling in his affairs, harassing—
“Something you want?” asked Hideki.
“What’s your progress?” asked Enzan.
“I’ve been writing a frame-destroying program. Once the program attaches itself to a host, it will break down motor functions and eventually the whole of the navi’s body.”
“And that has to do with Echo…how?”
“It will weaken Imi enough for you to take her,” said Hideki. “And if she keeps resisting, then she won’t get the cure, and…”
“What about delivery?”
“We attach it to another navi first.”
“Who?”
Hideki looked to Rockman.
“Oh,” said Enzan. “Because he’s—”
“Yes.”
Enzan chewed over the possibility for a moment.
“What about fixing her?” he asked. “Properly?”
Hideki shuddered. “It…would take time.”
“How long?”
“A few days, I think. That’s my best guess; I haven’t really looked.”
“Why not?”
Hideki shrugged off the question, leaning into the screen. In truth, it made little difference. If he wanted to avoid the possibility, that was his prerogative. Enzan had little patience to play games with the man. If the first option involved making Rockman a human sacrifice and the second option Hideki kept avoiding, then Enzan would find a third one.
When Imi first appeared, Enzan had rounded up the Members and scrambled them into Cross Fusion as fast as possible. Even with the jammers, they were deathly afraid of a breach. It soon became clear, however, that Imi knew not how to penetrate the barrier, which led to the wary standoff. Since it made little sense to stay in Cross Fusion for hours on end, the other Members simply lay in wait. They knew well that Imi could summon Spike Towers and other weapons within the area even if she were outside it, but they hoped she would refrain, lest she harm her own father in the process.
So far, that assumption was safe. Whether Enzan, alone, would be exempt from her wrath was less clear. All the same, he left the others behind. If he was going to go out there and negotiate, he had to appear disarming, and what better way than unarmed?
And, for that matter, if she killed him, they would never appease her demands. Only if she expected that would she risk a bold move. Thus, Enzan chose to be bold himself.
“What do you want, Enzan-san?” asked Imi, tapping on wall of the area.
“I think that’s my question to you.”
Imi looked beyond him. They were alone, on bare, wet dirt, with the house about 50 meters from the perimeter.
“I want my papa,” she said. “I don’t want to be broken anymore.”
“That can be arranged,” said Enzan. “Surrender yourself.”
“I have a condition.”
“I will turn you over to him; as long as you’re cut off from the net, I don’t care—”
“I want to touch him.”
Enzan narrowed his eyes. “You want to what?”
“That’s what was supposed to happen, you know,” she said. “On the train…”
“I gathered,” said Enzan. “What I don’t know is why.”
“Do you think he would, Enzan-san? Fix me, I mean?”
“I don’t see why he shouldn’t.”
She laughed. “You don’t know Papa. He scares easily, and he’s scared of me. I frighten him. I repulse him. That’s what he and Codey-kun said. The last time I saw them, they condemned me.”
Enzan frowned. This conversation was not going in the right direction; Imi had steeled herself rather than tear down the wall and cooperate. “He may have said that, but I know he doesn’t mean it now.”
A lie. A fabulous lie. Hopefully it would work.
“Maybe,” she said, “but that’s why I need to touch him. That’s why I need to be sure.”
He shook his head. “That’s not on the table.”
“Then there’s nothing for us to talk about.”
“I can lower the area,” he offered. “I can let you inside. Walk right in; you can talk to him.”
“And if I lay a hand on him, you’ll try to delete me,” said Imi. “Isn’t that so?”
He turned away, trudging over the dirt back to the compound. “I don’t have time for your moronic stubbornness.”
“But Enzan-san—”
He shrugged and tapped his watch. “You might want to back up.”
Warily, Imi stepped back, and from high in the sky, a second dimensional area formed around the first, which then receded and vanished. Sixty seconds later, the inner area reformed, and the outer one disappeared, as if nothing had happened.
Imi sat back down, and Enzan shut the door to the safe house.
“That went well,” said Imi.
In truth, it hadn’t gone badly. Enzan made his offer, and Imi rejected it. What more he could plan to do from there…well, that was his business. Hers was getting inside, and the way things were going, she’d probably have to pay a high price for it.
I should’ve taken his offer and touched Papa anyway. There’d be nothing they can do at that point. Then I’d know, and this would be over.
‘Forgive us if we don’t empathize.’
Imi sighed. Oh, Roll-san…
‘I’m surprised, Imi-chan,’ said Roll. ‘You haven’t killed anyone yet.’
Roll-san, really! I’m not like that. I think you’re thinking of Rockman-san.
Roll fumed. ‘No, you’re worse! A thousand times worse! Rockman is Rockman, but you—’
So you regret what you said?
‘This isn’t about me!’
No, it’s about me, so let me think.
‘You’ve had plenty of time to think, Imi,’ said Masuyo. ‘What conclusions have you reached?’
Papa doesn’t trust me. He’s too afraid.
‘Trust is earned,’ said Roll. ‘What have you done to earn his trust?’
What had she done…to earn…?
‘The only thing you can do now is give yourself over to them,’ said Masuyo. ‘Without that, Papa will never trust you.’
Imi mulled over these words, for they rang very true. She’d been entirely sneaky with Yaito and Meiru, watching them from shadows, masquerading as nurses. She’d done the same with Enzan before that. Rockman, too, had stared her in the eye and seen not her but Roll instead. Up to now, Imi hadn’t shied away from deceiving to achieve her ends. Enzan had no reason to believe her motives true; a lesser navi might well resent her father for abandoning her and seek vengeance on his head. Imi wasn’t like that, of course—she loved her father—but how were they to know? There were far too many moments when even she disgusted herself, when the cries of the choir overwhelmed her, and all she could see were enemies—evil, spiteful people that wanted nothing more than to keep her from her father, deny her his love. That desperation, that rage had awakened Roll, crippled the Members’ navis. It was a powerful, dark place to be, yet it also scared her. All this time she’d been fighting against the souls she stole, and now they were fighting back, turning her own emotions against her.
Even now, they whispered to her, and though their voices were hushed and almost unintelligible, they rang with a clear overtone.
I can’t trust them, either.
Not them, not anyone. There was no reasoning out of this situation. There was only action, and she would act. She would get inside and make Papa see. Only then would he know her pain and understand.
Imi looked to the sky for the faint twinkle of light, the one where the phantom areas came from. She knew not where Enzan had hidden his new set of generators, but it didn’t matter. It was almost time.
She hugged the wall of the dimensional area and waited.
“What is she doing?” asked Dingo. “She has to know it’s almost time!”
“She does,” said Nenji. “She’s up to something.”
Laika and Enzan checked their watches. Sure enough, the end of the fifteen-minute window approached. This had been Enzan’s master tactic against Imi: with the cooperation of the Namastians, they launched a dimensional area generator into orbit, subject to international use and cooperation. They knew of the safe house, and as long as the night sky was clear, they watched for his signal or for the land-based area to fail.
And it did fail. Every fifteen minutes, the generators had to cool down and cycle for sixty seconds. Thus far, this rotation, along with a network of signal jammers in the house, kept Imi out.
“She’s out of her mind!”
But not anymore. Imi leaned against the inner barrier as the second overlaid it. The gap was large—about a meter or two—but it quickly shrunk to match the inner wall’s size. It shrunk, and it squeezed Imi to fit.
“Enzan,” said Laika, “is it possible—?”
“Slot-in your chips, everyone,” said Enzan. “She’s coming.”
Imi cried and screamed; she erected a tiny Dream Aura to hold the barrier back, but her agony made itself known even though the walls of the house.
“Can she even survive that?” asked Pride.
Enzan checked his watch, and the ticking hand told all that needed to be said.
“Yes.”
The inner barrier collapsed, and Imi, scrunched but alive, stood tall and defiant within the dimensional area.
“Let’s go!” said Enzan. “Move, move!”
| [+/-] |
Essence of Characters |
My other blog, Star of the Lancer, is focused on WoW and mathematics, but while I may be a mage, I'm also a writer. Paradoxically, I feel I don't read as much as I should, and some of that, I think, is motivated by fear. Perhaps it's just me, but when I read something or watch something (for television and film are as much an art as the novel), I find it all too easy to get attached to those characters and to grieve for them when the show or book is over, and sometimes, I don't want to grieve. Even still, from time to time, something really catches my interest. Of late, that something has been Ranma 1/2.
In short, Ranma 1/2 is a late 80's/early 90's manga and anime about a 16-year-old martial artist who, thanks to his bumbling father, falls into a cursed Chinese spring. The curse itself is rather simple: when splashed with cold water, he turns into a girl. Only hot water reverses this effect. Aside from that, Ranma himself faces a small handful of suitors, all vying for his hand in marriage, and from time to time, he squares off against martial arts rivals (though the "art" in question can be anything from "martial arts tea ceremony" to "race along the beach without getting your watermelon popped").
As a whole, the series is comedy, and as such, often the characters exaggerate their reactions to fit comedy. One of the prime examples is Tendou Akane, Ranma's principle love interest, with whom he enjoys an intensely denial-ridden relationship. Ranma and Akane are more often seen insulting each other than anything else, and should Ranma slight her (or if she even perceives a slight), Akane won't hesitate to punt him or beat him over the head with whatever available blunt object. Rarely do the two enjoy a moment where they can express their true feelings (since, for comedy's sake, something usually comes along to kill these moments). Even the end of the manga refuses to get them fully "together" (or anyone else, for that matter).
But, at any rate, Ranma 1/2 is comedy, and as I said, thus the characters bend a bit to fit the tropes of comedy, but this leads to problems when people on the internet try to evaluate the characters seriously. In such discussions, Akane is characterized as little short of a total...witch (or, conversely, people take the other extreme and dismiss her actions as entirely justified by Ranma's insensitivity). In short, however, I feel that little effort is made to understand the characters, rather only to judge them.
As a writer, I don't judge characters. In my story Echoes, I deliberately avoided characterizing people as evil in their own minds. Characters judge each other, but as a third-person narrator, I don't. Nor do I think it interesting to do so. I think when you get to the point as judging characters as good or evil, redeemable or forsaken, you take away an essential dynamic of conflict. I feel characters should always be well-intentioned, at least in their own world view. At the risk of Godwining myself, even Adolf Hitler must, in my mind, have seen his actions as morally just and for the betterment of humanity. We can condemn him as a person, for he's not a character but a real man from history, but I think the point still stands: few people see themselves as truly evil. When they do, often there's another reason for it--they consider themselves under out of control, slaves to urges they cannot keep in check.
After Echoes, I've planned to write a Ranma fanfic novel, and as such, I feel I must understand the characters in order to do them justice. Indeed, working with characters from another source, I feel it's even more important than with original characters or original fiction, for you have a long history of behavior and development to match.
How do I see Akane? In a word, insecure. Ranma (and several of his other suitors) are her superior in martial arts. Her homemaker skills are mediocre (though perhaps not as terrible as sometimes portrayed), and as a woman...well, that's everything Ranma insults about her. She is an "uncute, macho tomboy." Every time Ranma has an indiscretion (or if she even thinks he's having one), it calls into question her womanhood, puts one more nail in the coffin of her desirability. Naturally she fights back, and while I think the malleting and other slapstick overreactions must be considered in a more toned-down light if you want to make comedy serious, I think the quality of her reactions is still there. She's paranoid. She's afraid. And when she feels her place slipping from her, she can be jealous. She can be a bitch, and she will continue to be one until she really pushes Ranma away. Then, and only then, can she grow as a character. Then she can strive to better herself. It will only be a question of time and timing.
And Ranma? Ranma is all about ego. The last thing he wants to be perceived as is weak or feel humiliated, embarrassed. This is why he so vigorously denies his attraction to Akane, even to himself at times. This is why he insults her--he must have the last word in an argument, for trading insults is as much battle as a martial arts duel. True, there are some things he genuinely doesn't understand and can make him come off as a jerk, but he's not so ignorant all the time. We can see more often than not he's motivated by being better than others. The two times Akane got powerups to or beyond his level, Ranma greatly disliked it. When Shampoo came under the effects of the Reversal Jewel, he needed the satisfaction of her pursuit back, even though he's not seriously considered her for a wife. Ranma's all about ego, and admitting his feelings would require him to put that aside and, well, bear his soul. He doesn't do that. He doesn't want to let anyone in. Even in the small number of times he's let that wall down, as often as not Akane shoots him down for it. For Ranma to grow, he will have to put his ego aside, allow himself to put down that wall and be hurt. Then he can be stronger for it.
Writing, to me, is all about character growth. I structure my novels in a semi-serial nature, and as such, growth is gradual, with each sub-story setting it up. Some characters, of course, are static, and the tragedy is that they didn't grow. That's something to consider, too.
| [+/-] |
Welcome to "West of Arcturus"! |
After deciding that one blog about, basically, two things wasn't a good idea, I've created "West of Arcturus," a blog more oriented toward my writing and thoughts on that subject. Please enjoy your stay; the next few posts will be imported from Star of the Lancer.
