Only five of these are mine. A sixth one is just being hosted for a friend.

Author of the following:

Living Life Anew
Path of the Arts
Pulling No More Punches
Dragon's Gift of Jusenkyo
Rewind and Replay

I'm an avid reader, gamer and manga/anime fan. I've read a multitude of books, primarily focusing on Fantasy with a smattering of Sci-Fi, Horror and Suspense. I was introduced to the worlds of magic when I was about nine, as I recall. The first book I tackled was The Sword of Shannara and it took off from there. However, out of all of the books I received, I was immediately hooked by David Eddings' “The Belgariad” series, when I was thirteen. The wonderful characters took me to a world of fantasy that I could relate to. Of them all, I truly appreciated Garion and Ce'Nedra. Their growth as young adults and on a journey to find the Orb of Aldur, a quest that staked the future of the world on their success or failure intrigued my young mind. Not to mention that they were the first couple that I was truly rooting for to get together.

Later, a friend let me borrow some Ranma anime in '98. Since then, I have been hooked. While both have many differences, I enjoy the many parallels between the two. The contentious relationship is, in some ways, similar to Garion and Ce'Nedra. Unable to reconcile their feelings for one another. A willingness to do what was necessary to keep each other safe. An unwanted betrothal that had been set up before they were born. An inner strength/awkwardness of each of the characters that brings out the best/worst in each other. Pride and insecurity. The fact that the series had plenty of fantastical elements also helped.

Several months after starting my Ranma watching, I started up "Living Life Anew". Many people said they enjoyed it, so I finished it up after 2.5 years of working on it. Distractions caused my writing to slow significantly, but I did manage it. After that, I started up the sequel, "Path of the Arts", yet have not done anything to further it beyond the first chapter. In between, I did a little one-shot, "Pulling No More Punches", an angst-filled story about when Ranma finally snaps about Ryoga. Not a very good one, I know, but still. I'm considering eventually fixing it up based on some comments. Then the idea of bringing R&A back from the end of the manga hit me and I started "Rewind and Replay". This last one languished as well, much like PotA.

After having been away from writing for over a decade, I am back as of January 2018. My focus right now is "Rewind and Replay". It is an AU of Ranma and Akane's return to the beginning of the manga. I'm trying my best to keep it canon with, of course, additional character development because of the events that brought them back.

As far as Ranma 1/2 goes...I'm all about Ranma and Akane getting together. I have enjoyed stories that have done otherwise, but those are my favorite types as well as the ones I will write about. I also enjoy crossovers where the two are paired together. Sometimes pairing Ranma with anyone other than Akane does grate on my nerves, but I manage. There are exceptions. One story I read that was so well done was a pairing of Ranma and Kodachi. I'm only writing about Ranma 1/2 even though I have plenty of other manga I can pull from. (I read a lot using Manga Fox on my phone). I am incorporating elements from these other stories to put into R&R for everyone's enjoyment.

I am using a variety of resources to try to capture the essence of the characters, not just the manga. I prefer manga over the anime as there are parts of the latter that were written by others, not Rumiko Takahashi, and they clash when it comes to this characterization. There are some in-depth analysis pieces of the characters by writers/fans that I have found intriguing and have adopted them for keeping the cast “in character”.

Ranma Wikia
antimatter's blog about Ranma
SkyStrider (a fanfic author here)
Doug's Resources for Fanfic Writers (for the pics & character heights)
MZephyr's Ranma 1/2 manga timeline & other write-ups
TV Tropes
Respect Ranma Saotome! (a Reddit thread)

As for me personally, I practiced American-style Kenpo for a short time, am retired from the military, and aspire to be published one day. I find fanfiction as being a way to hone my writing skills as well as a creative outlet. Since retiring, I've picked up homesteading, as it was a small part of my background before heading off to see the bigger world. When I had left home, like many others, I had sworn off coming back to stay. After seeing the world, I did find that where I came from suits me quite well and brought my family with me to enjoy it.

If you haven't figured it out by now, my handle is short for Patriotic Mercenary. The story is that, when I was a kid, I remember my father (retired military as well) and uncles had been talking about a warlord in the Pacific Islands somewhere. This warlord would consider anyone on their first enlistment as “conscripts” or not knowing any better. Anyone who had re-enlisted would be considered as mercenaries, thus not allowing them privileges under the Geneva Convention. The story stuck with me for some reason. After I re-enlisted, myself, I found that the term then applied to me as well (in a tongue-in-cheek way, that is). Because of my love of God and Country, I added Patriotic.

Author's Notes & Updates

For my readers...How am I doing? My dialogue? Descriptions of scenes, characters, etc.? Even if you don't feel like posting a review and you have some advice, just PM me. Anything that helps the story is appreciated. I do like it if I can PM you back rather than what (to me) seems like a waste of a “review” because I can't address what someone has posted. I like to reply... :) Flames keep me warm at night. PLEASE and THANKS!

I have an AO3 account now, so I will be posting my stories there soon!!! Same handle and everything. This way, if through some mishap or misfortune and fanfiction(dot)net goes down, you can still get your fix. Yay!

Rewind and Replay:

Here are some updates concerning the various chapters I have posted and am working on. Note that even posted chapters may be changed due to either my own whims or from later developments that need to have some foreshadowing added. Also, as I read through the story again and again and again...I expand on conversations and descriptions. Maybe modify some to better fit what I am trying to portray. I like to be verbose in descriptions. As fanficiton is practice for when I finally get my head out of my fourth point of contact and actually write something that can be published, well...

CH 1 - 3: Completed

CH 4 Confrontations: Posted. Adding another scene at the end of the chapter focused on Kodachi. Changed the roof scene with Nabiki entirely - no talk about modeling and Ranma is confrontational with her.

CH 5 Cold As Death: Posted. Going back through and will be adding scenes that coincide with later developments. Gotta find where the Kuno siblings fit into the story.

CH 6 The Burning Egg: Posted. More Kuno stuff I think I might need to add. Then, of course, Ryoga.

CH 7 Judgement: Changed the name from Amazons. It was all of Chapter 7 and 8, but I took out the biggest part and made that into CH8. This chapter will focus solely on Shampoo and will be quite short. Only about 5k words in this one.

CH 8 Conversations: The remainder of CH 7 following Shampoo's part. Up to 19k words so far.

CH 9 Faceoff: Workin' it...sort of.

It will be awhile before I publish Ch 7. I prefer to work on at least three chapters at the same time. This is so I maintain a good rhythm for the story. I also flip back and forth between chapters, adding or deleting scenes as I work the plot.

My goal for the story is to bring other elements of fantasy into their world that wasn't there before. Or, in some instances, enhance it. I'm also attempting to bring in the multi-faceted aspects of a relationship that these two characters can enjoy (whether for good or ill). I know that I tend to be a bit serious in my writing, so there's the occasional comic relief if I can manage it. I do want to try to get my readers to laugh or at least a light chuckle now and again. Along with a bit of WAFF.

Commentary in regards to reviews, questions and observations:

1. Not a revenge fic. Originally this was just a "rewrite" of the manga with the two having knowledge of their past two years. Then I went with a more fantastical aspect to it. Yes, they're powered up, but they are NOT unbeatable. There will also be some "growing pains", errors/mistakes and other developments as the story progresses.
2. Imperial vs. Metric - Japan does have an imperial system that was phased out in the early 1900s. Many people still use variations of it in their daily lives. I'm using the English imperial system for measurements because martial artists use similar when measuring distance. A span, foot or cubit. I did not incorporate the Japanese system, instead opting for the American/English imperial words for it.
3. ... more to come as I see what needs to be addressed.

I put the story into the dimensions of a paperback novel. Why did I do this? Well, to personally see just how much I've written and how it measures up to what professional writers have published. And to let readers know how much effort we, as writers, put into posting our stories. With what I've written so far (through Ch 7), I have over 700 pages! Here are the dimensions I'm using:

4.25"x7"
Font Name: Book Antiqua
Font Size: 10
Left Margin: 0.45"
Right Margin: 0.375"
Top Margin: 0.5"
Bottom Margin: 0.75"

Obmutescence

I've started a new story and will likely post it once I've finished. This is an AU that I thought up after reading MZephyr's “The Silent Horse”.

Plot: During his fight with Herb atop Treasure Mountain, Ranma is injured, stuck as a girl and is unable to speak. What will he, his rivals and fiancées do?

Living Life Anew

It's completed at this time. But I opened up a new file and started rewriting the beginning. Just several paragraphs to begin with so far. Knowing more about Ranma 1/2 than I did when I first started (only so many episodes of the anime at the time), I want to do a better job. The overall plot will be the same, but HOW it comes about will be different.

This means that the first chapter will be redone in its entirety. I'll keep some of the scenes, I believe, but there will be more than Ranma's tenuous feelings. I'll also change the antagonism from Cologne to Shampoo, as the former was, after the Phoenix Pill arc, just enjoying the show...for the most part. I have a plot device that I don't think anyone has ever used that will surely piss Shampoo off to no end. Which will prompt her to go to such extremes as she does. I'll also change up how the end of that encounter is, I believe.

Now, on to a bit of a rant. There are some pet peeves I have when it comes to portrayal of the characters, especially R&A.

Both have similar personalities. They enjoy martial arts, even if Akane gets eclipsed because all of the focus is on Ranma. That's because he's given a myriad of techniques to learn as well as constantly fighting. The two easily forgive one another and so-called enemies. If they didn't do this last, there would be a lot more animosity and likely serious injuries when it comes to rivals/paramours. To see this, look at how they treat Happosai, Pantyhose Taro, Ryoga and Tatewaki Kuno, some of the worst culprits for messing with them. Both will go out of their way to help each other. Even Akane remarks on this (see the Bust Battle arc). Nor is Akane abusive like portrayed in many fanfics. When writers portray her as flying off of the handle at any little slight or perceived slight, I have to shake my head. Over-the-top portrayal of this often has me closing that story and finding another. I presume much of this is due to the anime and readers that get into writing, taking fanon as canon. (MZephyr did a great analysis on the violence rating of the various characters in the manga. Ranma and Akane were right in the middle compared to the others.) Neither character considered actually murdering their opponents like Shampoo, Mousse or Ryoga have. They are also often portrayed as getting along throughout the series when it's just the two of them. They'll talk about their various escapades, mess with each other jokingly or simply hang out. Ranma does like being confrontational and will deliberately antagonize Akane. But he likes his little spitfire.

Neither one is gay, imho. The only time Ranma acted as a girl was when he hit his head. And the only time he fell for Ryoga is due to the koi rod. Never in canon was Akane attracted to girls, either. For some reason, just because Ranma turns into a girl, she says she "hates boys" and ends up getting engaged because her sisters misinterpret her feelings, people like to say she is. She vehemently denies attraction to other girls, is attracted to men like Dr. Tofu and eventually falls for Ranma, regardless of his cursed female side. She only considers Ryoga a good friend and says so (see the Shi Shi Houkodan arc).

I also consider Ranma a very intelligent character, if socially inept. He's been learning the Art practically his whole life, thus his interpersonal skills are truly stunted. He will reply in kind if someone is respectful, disrespectful or outright hostile. He will first try to negotiate and then escalate a conflict as it goes on as necessary. Unless the opponent is a constant nuisance like Kuno or Ryoga, of course. His ability to incorporate a skill into his repertoire and then modify it on the fly is remarkable. He does mention that he's not stupid, as evinced during the arc where Principle Kuno stole the test scores of the English quiz. Ranma wasn't worried about the scores being given out until Principle Kuno alluded to him having a bad score. This caused Ranma to get involved and nothing else. While his score wasn't given like Akane's, the only one who had issue with it was his father, as their scores were broadcast on television, which they shouldn't have been. Then there is the issue of his handwriting and drawing. I know plenty of guys that have horrible handwriting. Mine is actually pretty decent when I'm not in a rush and have gotten plenty of compliments about it. (I used to write sentences as a punishment...) With Ranma practicing martial arts, his hands have likely been broken numerous times. The calluses would make holding a pencil difficult. When Ranma isn't practicing, he's reading. I don't think he watches television unless there is a specific reason for it, such as Akane cajoling him into watching something with her (as far as I know, she enjoys horror flicks). While much of what he enjoys in his spare time is manga, he does utilize scrolls, manuals and textbooks on a regular basis. He isn't adverse to using magical items on others, like when he used an incense on Ryoga to help him on his date with Akari.

So, that's the end of that rant.

Airborne Leads the Way! Hooah!
Death From Above!
Always Out Front!

patrioticmerc