A Repository of Interest

the "I'll teach you everything" meme redraw from twt ehehe

Akane brutally murders Ranma in the first paragraph of the story. Ranma is alive and fine within a few sentences, and he is the only person in the story to react to this with any degree of reasonableness.

You realize that the narrative never mentions Ranma changing, instead the pronouns used retroactively change every time you open the fic.

You don’t recognize half the characters in the story. A bit of googling reveals that this is an unlabeled crossover with another 90s anime series. However, when you try and read it’s Wikipedia article all you can recall is a headache and a faint feeling of nausea.

Konatsu and Akari do not appear in the story. Despite logically the story taking place at a point in canon when they are around. Despite there being scenes where by all accounts the other cast members are interacting with them, the text never mentions either. They are ghosts, haunting the narrative.

Shampoo starts beating Ranma with paper lanterns screaming about how she’s not some stupid racist stereotype. He laughs it off. She starts crying. You start crying.

The time period the story takes place in is in flux. Modern technology appears once, only to be ignored the next paragraph. One chapter seems to have them in feudal Japan. Genma and Soun commit Seppuku. They are fine.

In a scene where Ukyo makes Ranma an okonomiyaki you wonder if the author knows what the dish is made out of. You wonder if the author knows what humans eat.

The fanfic references episodes of the anime that you remember watching as a kid. Except that they’re never on the blu rays, and nobody else remembers them.

The fic ends without any resolution, the author having last updated in July 2002. You find another fic. You click it. Akane brutally murders Ranma in the first paragraph of the story.

Akane knows Ryoga is P-chan. Akane knows Ranma kept it a secret from her. Akane knows that you knew.

and when you open your eyes, you realize your head is entirely filled with cotton where your brain used to be. the rest of your body too. you feel light and soft and suddenly all you want to do is cuddle in the lap of the person who gave you such a sweet surprise in the first place.

Alien settings where the organic and artificial are intertwined, and it similarly blurs the line between sci-fi and fantasy in a really unique way compared to literally everything else. A fairly simple surface-level narrative but with a lot of hidden depths and rabbit holes. It can be astonishingly silly at times while still taking itself completely seriously, and then also be genuinely profound if you're willing to engage with the "cringe" earnestness of it. Not to mention being consistently and gleefully weird at all times. And of course, sorely misunderstood by everyone on the outside, when it's noticed at all.

hiding in plain sight

thank you for holding your horsies. now check this horsie out. almost burst into tears drawing this. felt like I was part of something. hi humanity!!!!!! let's make art together!

they're fine, don't worry. they're a deity of human survival. they are the joy of the hunt and the feast, they are the wonder of art and human connection, they are the stories on the wall. and they love humankind.