Re: [GRIT] [FIC-ish] Fire-born Chrysalis

"Steven Scougall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Sorry, folks, just one last little bit to add.  Just to make things a bit
more fic-ish, and to put a sort-of-ending on things.

> > --- Steve and Wing's room ---
> >
> > Steve's eyes open to see the white of the ceiling.  She sits up, doing
her
> > buttons up, and hears a feminine giggle off to the side.
> >
> > Steve:  Hi Ann.
> >
> > Ann:  Really, nii-san, doing up your shirt like that.  I didn't know you
> had
> > such feminine modesty.
> >
> > Steve:  (Similar teasing tone)  Well of course I do, I subconsciously
> > learned it from you.
> >
> > Ann:  Oh?  You actually wanted to learn some?
> >
> > Steve:  (Sighs)  Oh, there's a reason I learnt it alright.
> >
> > She has to know.  Is this still a vision?  It shouldn't be, not with the
> way
> > the last one ended, but she has to be *sure*...
> >
> > She concentrates.
> >
> > There is a *sha-fwhoof*, a flame aura effect, and Steve is male again.
He
> > looks down at his body.  So familiar, yet... disquieting.  He changes
back
> > to female.
> >
> > Steve:  (To herself)  So this is reality, then...
> >
> > Ann:  O_o  Nii-san?  Why'd you change back?
> >
> > Steve:  That's 'nee-san' to you.  ^_~
> >
> > There is a heavy pause, and then Ann's mouth opens as realisation of
> Steve's
> > changed manner dawns.
> >
> > Ann:  Steve... er... nee-san... um...  what's happened to you?  You
think
> > you're a girl?
> >
> > Steve:  Not *exactly*, but...  Well, I had a vision, and I had an
argument
> > with a certain part of myself I'd been successfully ignoring for
> > twenty-three years.  You might have come across her.
> >
> > Ann:  (blinkblink as further realisation dawns)  ...oh.  (blinkblinks
some
> > more)  Ooohhhhhh.
> >
> > Steve:  I was doomed to lose.  (Pause, then she smiles)  The good news
is
> I
> > won, too.
> >
> > Ann:  You did indeed.
> >
> > They laugh.
> >
> > Ann:  What are your plans for now?
> >
> > Steve:  I don't think I'm wrong about this.  I'm *sure* I'm not.  But
just
> > in case I am, I'm going to treat the next little while as a trial
period.
> >
> > Ann:  How long are you thinking?
> >
> > Steve:  Could be a month, or could be as short as the rest of the day.
> How
> > long did it take you?
> >
> > Ann:  About five minutes.
> >
> > They laugh some more, make plans, talk...
> >
> > In the mind of the person that was Steve, there's a niggling thought.
> It's
> > going to be hell to explain this all to everyone, she muses.  It's going
> to
> > be harder for some than others.  But she figures that for once in her
> life,
> > she feels content, pleased...  happy, even.
> >
> > (The end...)
> >
> > (...well, not really.  Most definitely not the end.  Rather, a new
> > beginning.  Possibly.)
>
> ...possibly not.
>
> The scene fades...
>
> It fades to black.
>
> An indeterminate time later, the world explodes into motion and sound;
Steve
> is being trampled by elephants while someone is shouting "DANGER DANGER
> DANGER ELEPHANTS AHEAD" into her ear from point-blank range.  She turns to
> whack the person shouting into her ear, blinks and wakes up, and realises
> that she wasn't being trampled by elephants but getting shaken by the
> shoulder, and the shouting was not from a weird man in khakis and a pith
> helmet but a combination of Jo and the alarm clock.
>
> She...
>
> ...feels as if she's missing something, and there's a fleeting thought
about
> things being just a dream, and then that is gone too.
>
> (You may all groan now.)
>
> Jo:  (Male form)  Hey!  Time to get up!
>
> Steve sits up, yawns hugely, stretching her arms up behind her head, and
> incidentally gives Jo quite an eyeful of the fact that her pyjama top is
> unbuttoned.  Blinking muzzily, Steve starts doing her buttons up.
>
> Jo:  O_o  Uh, Steve, when did *you* develop feminine modesty?
>
> Steve:  (Sleepily)  Wha?  (Looks down just as she finishes doing up the
top
> button)  Weird.  I wasn't even thinking about what I was doing.  Dunno
why.
>
> Jo shakes his head.  Steve is getting weirder all the time.
>
> This thought is reinforced several times over when Steve attempts to
change
> back to male form.  It comes as no surprise to the honoured readers that
> there is just a *sh-frrrrrp* sputtering noise and that the flame aura
effect
> sputters out, leaving Steve unchanged.  It does however come as a huge
> surprise to Jo, and an even larger one to Steve as she feels the
incredibly
> disquieting and disturbing sensation of changing halfway to male and then
> back again, and yet at the same time it doesn't feel like a surprise at
all.
>
> Steve:  (looking shellshocked)
>
> Jo:  Steve?
>
> Steve:  (still looking shellshocked, shivering slightly)
>
> Jo:  Hey, Steve!
>
> Steve:  (yep, still looking shellshocked, and shivering madly)
>
> Jo:  HEY!
>
> Steve:  (Turning eyes that have seen Hell upon Jo; he steps back warily)
> ...I never want to go through that again.
>
> Jo:  Huh?
>
> Steve:  I just felt my... body start changing, slow down and stop at the
> halfway point, then changing back, speeding up along the way.  The
different
> speeds made me very *very* conscious of what was going on and how I was
> changing.  I *never* want to go through that again.
>
> Jo tries to imagine that and fails.  He concentrates on something else.
>
> Jo:  Uh, but that'll leave you female.
>
> Steve:  I can handle that until tomorrow morning, I think.  I'll just make
> sure to go to bed early tonight and get plenty of sleep.  Hopefully if I'm
> rested then, I'll be able to change back.
>
> Jo:  You're not rested now?
>
> Steve:  (Yawns hugely)  No.  I'm still bloody tired.
>
> Jo:  (Grumbles)  Well this was a great success...  (Out loud)
Unfortunately
> we still need you on the floor today.
>
> Steve:  That's fine.  I could do that in my sleep.
>
> Jo:  Uh, no, that's not it.  (Gives Steve a poke in the chest and she eeps
> in surprise)  You're never going to fit into your current uniform with
> *these* in the way.
>
> Steve:   (Goes red)  Er, I guess not.
>
> Jo:  I'll see what I can scrounge up.

Jo departs, leaving Steve to sit there in her bed, contemplating these new
circumstances in her life.

So it seems that she'll be, for at least the rest of the day, a girl.

She wonders at that, and why she doesn't feel all that bothered by it.  If
the past behaviour of Jo and Ranma is any indication, Steve should be
currently stubbornly thinking "I'm a guy!" and going outside to smash bricks
and do macho stuff to prove herself.  But instead she just feels as if it's
the latest in a long line of weird developments in her life, and hardly
something to get stressed over.  After all, come the next morning she should
be able to change back.  That is, if she gets enough sleep.

And if she really wants to.

The thought is gone before it is even fully formed, leaving Steve puzzled.
Why shouldn't she want to change back?

She hops out of bed, and goes forth into the new day.

 - Steve
   ...getting sick of this 'Chrysalis' thing