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Out of Time, Chapter 4

Posted:
Tue Dec 25, 2007 9:17 am
by Trimatter
Howdy!
Here is the latest beta of Out of Time, chapter 4.
Thanks in advance.
>>> Link removed for editing. <<<
--------
I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read and leave their comments on this.
I'll be reviewing those comments and using them to tweak/work on this chapter. Hopefully it won't take seventeen months like the last time.
Thanks again,
- Trimatter

Posted:
Tue Dec 25, 2007 12:56 pm
by PCHeintz72
Nice... currently around 3/4 the way through the chapter. A couple thoughts.
1. Dealing with the groper might not be such an issue. Ranma wants revenge. I would have had the doc suggest simply riding the same bus on the same route at the same time for the ext concurrent day, likely, he would have been on on it, if attacked again, whammo.
2. I thought I remember the principal being an older guy that liked watering a flowerbed. I'll have to rewatch that, but you might want to check that yourself. Or was the principal a female in the novels, ucertain which you are using as a base for the story.
EDIT1:
3.
She was will be in your class
The 'was' should be removed.
EDIT2:
Is she the gender-issue student
First, when was she actually called, and second, why would she know his as this, unless Ranma was described to her already.
EDIT3:
4. It actually would make more sense to me to go to class as a different gender every other day, alternate. That way, no need to change uniforms inside school daily except gym.
A note though, I dislike the girl uniform issue, and always have in non-locked ranma stories, so it is not your fault. Not only would it need be loose enough for the guy form should it happen or risk it being ripped apart, but a girl in a guys unifrom is unusual, but acceptable, a guy in a girls unifrom would get the scorn of nearly everyone.
Of course, the velcro solves part of the issue, but not the main concept.

Posted:
Tue Dec 25, 2007 6:16 pm
by Dumbledork
Finished reading the chapter. What can I say? Excellent of course. I hope that Ranma will get the groper. Here are some mistakes I found.
Soatomes household => Saotome household
Soatome house => Saotome house
goes with us => go
I've lived here almost => I've been living here for
wrapped a breakable in paper => breakable item (breakable doesn't exist as a noun)
securely in the => into
I've live my whole => lived
so old fashion about => old fashioned
made it all worth while => worthwile
the Soatomes piled => Saotomes
the Soatomes swiftly => Saotomes
while you mother keeps => your
want to aviod paying => avoid
changes in her father => his
understand, " he => understand,"
as he head toward => headed
Genma had return => returned
motioning to two large => pointing at two
said in a caviler way => are you sure that's the correct word? here's the definition of 'caviler' :
to raise trivial and frivolous objection
We'll met you upstairs => meet
Ranma quickly cross the small => crossed
area, he set => area before setting
and looked around => looking
decent size balcony => decent sized
quarters were down => two spaces
good size bathing room => good sized
one and a half people => this sounds really strange
had grown use to => used
fairly decent size house => decent sized
the decent view => two spaces
it's tail sticking => its
"Good," Nodoka announce => announced
how are you doing." => doing?"
at his cat, who was sunning => which
Genma continue to root => continued
he could do it, one of => it; one
size and shape of a every other => same size and shape as every
that Ranma had seen these in more than => seen on these on more
was the armrest and the buttons on it that was unexpected => the armrest and the buttons on it, however, were unexpected.
returned the lid to it's upright => its
Nothing still happened => And still, nothing had happened
what's the worse that => worst
reined in her amusement of her => amusement at her
I figured that it would on the armrest => would be on
she add, noting => added
a much claimer Ranma replied => do you mean 'calmer'?
clothing, and => two spaces
came up to him a gave him => and gave
replied with a meow and rubbing => started rubbing
life, " => life,"
began to sort through => sorting
Laying there, he => Lying
the pervious day moving => previous
A moment hadn't passed when => Not even a moment had passed until
cool morning air was ladened with => laden
A few school-age kids hung threaded => ?
I'm going to be starting => two spaces
Plenty of open room to workout in => work out
gotta get a birds eye view => bird's
I wonder what park this is?" => is."
I going to have to find => I'm going
Ranma found himself soon emerged from => emerging
he was on bleed into => bled
He attention was drawn => His
was near enough => two spaces
made her selection and bend over => bent
she said in a lower her head and her voice => ?
Ranma couldn't help but fell more => feel
sandwiched between a electronics store and a newstand. => ... an electronics... newsstand
that is what a Arm Slave looks like => an
he reached for the marital arts magazine => martial
Ranma had a had time => hard
Stepping out of the ladies room => ladies' room
playing the some rock tune => playing some rock
frozen pork buns for tonight." => tonight?"
the direction that she had just came from => come
it was the early afternoon => was early
Ranma waaited patiently => waited
she manage find and study an oversize map of the area with the but routes => ... managed... oversized... bus routes
observing the crowd => two spaces
she was able to as least look => at least
lechers or in anyway perverted => any way
facing away form her => from
Maybe the jerk have moved away => has
to mentally measured how long => measure
than what they were appear to => appearing
that's to... demeaning => too
to immediately raise to this => rise
Ranma almost curse openly as the hand immediately slide under => cursed... slid
Should I got talk with => go
and checking of Ranma => on
and I going to break => I'm
the modest size furo => sized
emergence of his male => two spaces
to better fit into the furo better => second 'better' has to go
in his minds eye => mind's
He then continued aloud, "I => aloud," I
knelt beside him and spoke lowely => lowly
he had became more quiet, => become... quieter
as he shook the box in hand to => in his hand
what he needs when it come to talking => comes
the Soatomes resumed eating => Saotomes
where they onced lived => once
He has been responding well to therapy => the therapy
the docotr cautioned => doctor
will end up huriting your mother more in the fututre => hurting... future
How are you liking it => do you like
A far away look passed => faraway
replacing his tone with that of cavalierness => chivalrousness
and I can that you => can tell that
stood behind the chair was was sitting at => the chair the doctor was sitting in (?)
please sit down and talk about this => and let's talk
"I'm just over reacting," Ranma said => overreacting
His pacing speed up and => sped
"I'll blow over." => It will
sloshing it's contents => its
the doctor responded cooly => coolly
like you do when your male. => you're
Ranma said tiredly => two spaces
Mousse can fly, Toro can use all => Taro
when you had Akane as your fiancee => fiancée
of your Jusenkyo condition => two spaces
I can look at someone as think they => and think
wouldn't dwell on it very much, you => too much; you
like the case with your ex-fiancee => fiancée
Ranma manage to find and hit => managed
I got too use to sleeping in => used
when it came to between food => came to choose
the three Saotmoes ate => Saotomes
Pretending that a something doesn't exists => exist
Don't worry about those you can't => those who can't
Ranma lugged his parents futons => parents'
income from the Soatomes pension => Saotome's
filled two thermos'=> thermoses
a bit more plainer so => a bit plainer
he carried the thermos' back => thermoses
Ranma set the thermos' aside => thermoses
and selected a outfit for => an
so lookiing the part => looking
was the conclusion he brought from => conclusion he came to
unexpected side affect of => effect
The unexpected side affect of wearing proper attire however, was for Ranma, no matter what form he found himself in, had actually grown used to wearing clothes that were comfortable and fit well => you need to work on this sentence
for the two small thermos'=> thermoses
The sound of the his mother => of his
drew Ranma attention from => Ranma's
would you mind going on a head => ahead
they were doing so good to => too
I wonder what's up?" => up."
nothing that Ranma could call special => would
he manage to spy into a few => managed
all he saw was indistinct => were
no magazines to past the time => pass
As if on queue => cue
queue, a woman => two spaces
"Pleased to met you, Mrs. Saotome => meet
"Pleased to met you," the principal => meet
in front of the princpal's desk => principal's
He then removed two thermos' => thermoses
Ranma looked around the room => two spaces
and passed over the desk into Ranma's => passed it
to the seated woman across => two spaces
and pour some of the water => poured
She pause once again for a moment => paused
As a boy are a girl => or as a
She also had and air of => an air
Mrs. Kagurazaka, welcome," principal greeted => the principal
She was will be in your class => She will
She was proud that she able to use => she was able
I do understand you reluctance => your
treat you differently that everyone else => than
Ranma's lips pursed in though => thought
It was down right creepy => downright
the fact that he would had to => have to
behave and be, er - opened minded => open-minded
I understand that you like to be => you'd
You show the class your condition and then while you are will be excused to change into a proper uniform => you need to rework the sentence
don't be in a hurry,"Mrs. Kagurazaka => hutry," Mrs.
with up front then be bugged => than
I you or your parents => If you
Half and hour later => an
were walking passed the school gates => past
It was well passed noon => past
Genma commented form Nodoka's side => from
district to get the uniforms; they were => uniforms,
without too much problems => many
everything worked out => worked out just fine
Ranma spin on his heal => span
making the small gym bad hover => bag
Ranma replied with a slight => two spaces
we'll met you there => meet
Good idea, Pops, I'll met you there => meet
across Genma's face for an moment => a
Ranma was zig-zagging along => zigzagging
as he began to wrap and bad the Ranma's new => and bag Ranma's
Nodoka verbally wandered => two spaces
The first thing that she notice was => noticed
Cloths were never my thing => Clothes
velcro and tie trick for my cloths => clothes
and cloths are expensive => clothes
change back with tearing => without
will help when I'm a guy, to => too
gave him plenty of room to work and work
Satisfied that he was sufficient warmed up => sufficiently
leaped into a quick secessions of exercises => succession
Laying back onto the grass => Lying
catalogued what he was capable => two spaces
he half-conculded => concluded
Laying back down, Ranma => Lying
he grasped at with a snap of the fingers => a word is missing
Nodoka half-screamed, interuppting => interrupting
and it... er, sorta backfire... a little => backfired
as if were trying to solve => if he
Intrigue by his father sitting in the middle => Intrigued... sitting outside
Ranma was relieve of that decision => two spaces... relieved
after a good nights sleep => night's

Posted:
Tue Dec 25, 2007 6:44 pm
by Light02
hmm good chapter, though felt a bit was left un explained like what happened with the Saotome/Tendo agreement, I guess thats in your rewriten Chapter 3

Posted:
Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:14 pm
by borgrabbit
What I found is probably duplicating Dumbledork's work, but I truly hope some of the following is helpful.
Wes
Copyedit narc:
After the meal and a few short goodbyes, the Soatomes piled into the cab
Saotomes
"Sure, no sweat," Ranma said in a caviler way as he selected the heaviest of the two
cavalierHe was thankful that he saw no other boxes that contradicted him.
Does 'other' need to be here as there were no 'other' boxes actually metioned, so...it does not follow?
Ranma heard a faint whirring sound as a rod protruded into the bowel of the toilet.
bowlHaving spent a good deal of the pervious day moving and unpacking,
previousThe street that he was on bleed into a wider avenue that was filled with pedestrians and traffic.
bledRanma smiled to himself as he reached for the marital arts magazine,
martial"At first I thought it was because he was scamming and bidding his time to try another 'join the schools' crap - you know he is...,"
I know that this is quoted dialog but it is 'spoken' and should be spelled correctly-
biding and using
'more' instead of 'another' is just my preference and can be ignored.
"If you don't you will end up huriting your mother more in the fututre."
hurting"It would be great if there were into martial arts, but that's not a deal breaker either...
they"I'd rather get all that stuff over with up front then be bugged all year long."
Did you mean
'than'?
It was well passed noon and school was dismissed for the day.
past time passed, it was past time don't know what the rule is, but 'think' I know the usage-by assumption.
"
Cloths were never my thing," Ranma pointed out.
"You came up with the velcro and tie trick for my
cloths?"
"You have to do something when you can change into a giant panda... and
cloths are expensive."
clothesI was trying that thing with my ki again and it... er, sorta backfire... a little."
backfiredDumbledork wrote
Ranma spin on his heal => span
Ranma
spun on his
heel
Sorry Dumbledork, but span is a measure or a bridging. Please don't hit me. You do great work.
Have uh grate haulidae

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:09 am
by WG_Writer
over all it looks good, I found some typos but they were all pointed out by others.
The only thing that stood out was Ranma calling Genma Dad instead of Pops. it feels out of character to me.

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:13 am
by Alathon
Forgive me if this is overly negative, but a couple things really bother me about this chapter, and to a lesser degree the story as a whole. Of the two, by far the most troublesome is the groper scene, because it's not credible. The situation felt like a contrived way to get Ranma offended by sexual misconduct in girl-form, but at the same time, it didn't even make sense because the limitations imposed on Ranma to prevent him from responding were not believable limitations.
If the crowd press really was that tight, it would have been simple to wedge one of the bags between him and another person and grab the gropers hands. Or just drop the bag.. if he was really as offended as he was portrayed, holding onto the bag made no sense whatsoever. Never mind that even in a press like that it'd be entirely credible for someone with Ranma's flexibility and strength to find another solution. Him not finding any solution over an extended period of time and just standing there with someones hand in his crotch makes no sense.. the most credible explanation I can piece together for this course of action is that Nodoka and his psychologist are successfully pussifying him to the point where he feels subconsciously compelled to conform to the worst female stereotypes, and I'm pretty sure that's not what you're going for.
Which brings up my other complaint, which is that the overarching way that Ranma's sexual identity is being directed by characters in this story doesn't feel right to me. It feels like his psychologist has made a concerted effort to drive him away from self-identifying as a male. It looks an awful lot like Ranma used to have a strong male identity, and the psychologist and Nodoka took advantage of a period of extreme stress (between the locked curse, losing much of what he knew, and trying to adapt to a changed environment) to foist off onto him some sort of hybrid non-gendered identity. And are continuing to do so with stunts like convincing him to go to school in both forms, which strikes me as a move calculated to force Ranma to either identify as both genders or neither, and explicitly drive him away from the option of identifying as male with a 'female condition'.
Unless the shrink is a sadistic prick, or apathetic and interested in prodding a particularly unique test subject, this angle doesn't make sense. It's guaranteed to put Ranma further and further out of sync with the rest of humanity, most (if not all) of which identifies strongly along gender lines. I cannot imagine how this could possibly be good for his mental health.. though I suppose it could keep the paychecks rolling in for the shrink.
Further, the assumption that Ranma must be more emotionally capable in female form is just plain tiresome and cliched. Even though there are a number of credible reasons why it could be particularly believable in Ranma's case, given how he was raised in male form, it just sorta rubs me the wrong way. I mean.. are we going to see Ranma become increasingly dishonest about relationships in female form? Will she start choking under pressure? I'm assuming not, since when Ranma becomes feminized he usually only gains the positive traits typically associated with women, and this makes me cringe.
Again, sorry for such extreme negativity about a story which is otherwise quite well written and certainly not deserving of vitriolic screeds.. these issues just really came to the forefront in this chapter.
Re: Out of Time, Chapter 4

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:06 pm
by khim
Pretty good so far, but two things are very hard to believe.
First of all: apartment. "Washer and dryer combo" ? "Decent size balcony" ? "Swimming pool and tennis courts" ? Apartment is WAY too big and luxurious as portrayed. Kuno will be able to afford something like this, but poor family like Saotomes ? Never. Is it really too hard to enter something like "what a typical apartment look like" and find
site or
two ?
Second: scene with groper. I don't know how much experience you have with overcrowded buses, but your Ranma acted like someone who never encountered it. He never used the fact that the bus is crowded for his advantage! When the bus is truly crowded you can just raise bag for a few inches, press forward slightly and "drop" it. It'll start to slowly slide down but you'll have 10-15 seconds - enough to pull cellphone or do something like this: I did this many times myself and I'm not even a martial artist! For Ranma it should be more then enough to catch groper's hand and break few fingers. If bus is not crowded enough to do that then you can just put bags between your legs (to protect them) and free BOTH arms! The whole scene looks bizzare because it's hard to believe that anyone will tolerate it - let alone someone like Ranma.

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:10 pm
by nodregah
Second: scene with groper. I don't know how much experience you have with overcrowded buses, but your Ranma acted like someone who never encountered it.
I believe that the fact is that Ranma has never encountered it. For Ranma this is a new world indeed. Remember his primary mode of transportation is on foot, not crowded bus.

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:32 pm
by Climhazard
I agree with others. Groper scene looks extremely artificially.

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:17 pm
by Dumbledork
I have to admit that I've been bothered by the groper scene myself. Maybe it would have been better to shorten the scene somewhat and have the groper touch some very intimate parts right from the start, with Ranma being able to punish him (or her?) immediately afterwards. She would still have felt 'dirty' and had the urge to clean herself.

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:21 pm
by khim
nodregah wrote:I believe that the fact is that Ranma has never encountered it. For Ranma this is a new world indeed. Remember his primary mode of transportation is on foot, not crowded bus.
May be, but buses and tains are
the means of transportation in Japan. Were since middle of 20th century (first buses were introduced in 1930 and by 1950 you can more or less reach any point in Japan by using just buses and trains). And if Ranma avoids them like a plague for 16 years (while traveling all around japan meanwhile!) then where the hell idea to take the bus to shorten the route come from ??? 16 years old habit is quite hard to break...

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:31 pm
by borgrabbit
I agree with nodregah in defense of the author. I think that the subject of crowded train cars had already been brought up, highlighting Ranma's non familiarity with the teeming masses that frequent the public transportation system in Tokyo. He probably rode on the roof or undercarriage.
Ranma ought to learn to shoot ki from any part of his or her body. The right ki entering a groper's hand should carbonize some skin, at least. How about branding the back of the groper's hand with the kanji for chikan?
Wes

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:48 pm
by khim
borgrabbit wrote:I agree with nodregah in defense of the author. I think that the subject of crowded train cars had already been brought up, highlighting Ranma's non familiarity with the teeming masses that frequent the public transportation system in Tokyo. He probably rode on the roof or undercarriage.
Probably, but to not even have any idea about how to fight in these conditions looks like
major oversight for martial artist of Ranma's caliber. You can say anything you want about Genma but he
knows how to train someone.
Plus it's just looks totally ridiculous for someone who can easily invent new techniques on the spot (Ranma did so countless times) to spent sizable time trying to overcome minor obstacle and
failing! Gosh. Sure his non familiarity can give groper few seconds to reach some intimate places and make Ranma feel violated (if Genma never taught Ranma how to fight in crowds - which looks quite unbelievable with his doctrine "be ready for an attack at
any time"), but to spend minute or so (time between bus stops) and not invent the way to free hands for a few seconds... that's just not Ranma.
Bad enough to see Ranma's character ruined by Viz (Takahashi's Ranma is
not macho caricature - he's just using male Japanese in all situations), but to see it robbed of his quick mind too - it's just too unbelievable...

Posted:
Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:31 pm
by Cheb
I think that scene is still could be salvaged, even if it needs surgery.
Cut, cut and patch.
Make the groping *much* shorter, for example.
And make Ranma's reaction more believable. For example, she lets go of the bag but the hand is gone and she cannot find the assailant, so takes the bag again, occupying her hands. Or something like this - you're the author, you decide.