Eternal Sleep?: Author Notes

Written by: Liz Donovan

Good God its over! *Wipes brow* Thank goodness! Now, allow me to explain why I did the things I did, and how I cranked out this super depressing fic. And also, allow to tie up some lose ends, that have explanations, but were never given in the context of the story because they were never brought up. I’ll try to go in order. After this, if you’re still confused about something, or want to ask questions, please e-mail me. So, without further ado, I’ll begin:

What is with that guitar in the beginning?!

Guitar? What guitar? (Go re-read chapter one, its been removed for the most part. Bad plot device that never worked).

What do the characters seem so OOC in the beginning two or so chapters?

I wrote chapters one and two before I’d even SEEN any Ranma ½, let alone READ any of the Manga. I was pulling out of Internet pages and fan fics. I’d read. THAT’S why they’re OOC in the beginning. Now I can say I’ve seen all the episodes released by Viz. so far, and read a ****load of Manga, and of course, the translations for the Manga by the ones not yet out in America.

Why’d You kill Ranma?

Originally I hated Ranma. I like him now, but I certainly like Ryouga far more. Anyhow, I’ve heard if you don’t like a character, instead of writing him off OOC, just write him out of your story. So I did just that. I also have to say, originally Eternal Sleep? wasn’t to be the gruesome dark fic. I’ve wrote. It was to be Three Chapters approximately, with Ranma dying, and then eventually coming back to life. I decided, as my dislike of Ranma grew, that that would make a ‘corny’ and predictable ending. I’m NOT one for endings like that. So instead, I make Ranma hang out in ‘ghost’ form until Chapter Nine. Where he departed, without so much as a wave. Which brings me to my next point.

What’s with Ryouga only seeing Ranma’s ‘ghost’?

Good question! I asked myself that a lot too! Then I finally stumbled across the answer. Cologne explains this in Chapter Nine, but here I’ll give a bit more, toned down version.

All the springs of Jusenkyou are cursed. The curse was: ‘What ever drowns in the spring, the next person to fall in will take that creatures body", or something to that extent. So the curse is the same, the only variation is what drowned in the spring. Taking that into mind, I came up with this.

Ranma died as a girl. The only character present who was in their cursed form at the time of Ranma’s death was P-chan. So I came up with the theory, that in death, the Jusenkyou curse is lifted. Since assumingly you are moving to a ‘high level’ you can get rid of you sins or whatnot, and hence the curse is lifted. To lift the curse, it needed to be bound to another cursed person. That person (figuratively speaking) was P-chan. However, since Ranma was a girl at his death, the ‘cursed’ half was actually his MALE side. So THAT bound to P-chan.

Hence one Ryouga saw Ranma’s ghost, he was then supposed to ‘lift’ the curse by changing human. That would reverse Ryouga’s curse and should have flipped Ranma’s. But since Ryouga was P-chan when he saw Ranma again, the binding didn’t undo. When Ryouga turned human again, Ranma wasn’t present. So what happened was Ranma got bounded to Ryouga and his female self, essentially a shell of a female body, was passed on to the ‘high level’. The only way to reverse that effect would be to splash Ranma with water and reinstate the curse. But since Ranma was a ‘ghost’ that obviously couldn’t be done, as the watered pass through him.

That’s where Cologne enters the story (she’s nice in the beginning, ne?). She has a flask of ‘holy’ water, an they’re able to pour it on Ranma, reinstate the curse and put Ranma in the ‘high level’ and bind his female-self to Ryouga. Whence it lifts off completely.

Still confused? E-mail me.

Why didn’t Ryouga’s Shishi Hokodan kill him?

Quiet simple really. The Shishi Hokodan comes from Ryouga’s ki. Since this is Ryouga’s own energy, when he releases it, its does him no harm. Just like in Nintendo games you can’t get hurt by your own fireballs.

What was the point of Yachi-yunqi Sheng-ying?

No REAL point. Yachi-yunqi is Ryouga, and he only became that way because he couldn’t face all his pains. He’d tried to kill himself, but that didn’t work. When he came to, he was basically nude, in the center of a giant crater. He then ran for it, trying to escape Japan. That led him to China. So you ask, what’s Yachi-yunqi Sheng-whatever? Well, its Ryouga Hibiki. In Japanese Ryouga would mean ‘fangs’ and ‘luck’. That’s what Yachi-yunqi translates in Chinese. Ya chi = teeth. Yun qi = luck. Hibiki, in Japanese, is ‘noise’. That’s what Sheng ying is in Chinese. Basically its a pun on his name. He never forgot who he was…because he obviously translated the name himself…he just forgot when and why he did it.

Why did you kill Tatewaki and Akane?

I hate Akane far more than I hate Ranma. People say to write characters you hate into stories, and then justify all their bad actions. I tried. I still hate Akane. She dies. Originally I was going to have a final scene end with Akane dying, but having a scene in ‘heaven’ where she encounters Ranma. But I decided against it. I killed Tatewaki because I could. I love Kuno. He’s my 3rd favorite Ranma ½ character, but I have such God-awful plot twists that I knew people didn’t expect him to die. So I killed him. Just as in the beginning of the book, no one would expect he ending ‘bad guy’ to be Cologne.

What’s with the Eternal Sleep stuff, anyway?

Well the actual title came about from the beginning, when I WAS gonna have Ranma return to life. But since that didn’t happen, I was stuck with a title. That also influenced the ending, obviously. As I had to relate the beginning to the end and to the title. I tried my best. But the ending makes for a GREAT sequel, darker than the original, don’t you think?

Well, I think that’s it. I hope I explained most of the major conflicts. If you still have questions, just e-mail me at rjd2@earthlink.net. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the story, even if its depressing as heck! See you around when I start my NEXT story!

Elizabeth (Liz) Donovan

Send me ideas, comments, questions, flames, whatever at: rjd2@earthlink.net Thanks!