Of Dreams and Dreamers

Nick Drake, i.e. Tenma-sama

OTHER STUFF BY THIS AUTHOR: Nerima When the Walls Fell; Nerima, Sifting Through the Rubble

OVERALL: 7.2

Plot: 6.0

Grammar/Spelling: 7.0

In a Nutshell: Nabiki decides it’s time for a little R n’ R. She buys a very expensive video game and cons all the Nerimans into playing; but things don’t turn out as expected. Plot starts out light, deepens quickly.

Critique: It starts a little too quickly for my taste, succumbing to the typical mistake of a poor, slightly unbelievable set-up, and ends the same way: with a somewhat trite wrap-it-all-up. Still, what’s in between is fun and involving, making it a worthy read.

Sum and Substance: Wow. After having read part of Nerima, When the Walls Fell, I was expecting this fic to be a lot less than it actually was. This fic was pretty amazing in comparison. It also starts off rather quickly. It’s too easy for Nabiki to gather everybody together to play this game – though she is, after all, Nabiki-sama. ;) Then the tale moves right to the knights-in-armor scene, allowing us to think that the fic will be paltry and silly in its entirety.

Once Ranma smashes the game while they are still inside the dream realm, their own dreams begin taking over: their aspirations and their nightmares. The dreams go from being relatively light (Shamp all dominatrix-y, Ryoga being forced to choose between Akane and Akari, Nabiki being the head of an evil corporation) to truly dark (Ranma is literally murdered by all of his foes and fiancées, Akane is defeated and utterly humiliated by Ranma and subsequently by her family, Nabiki is witness to her mother’s death.) The transition avoids melodrama by jumping every now and then to something lighter even as it moves towards inevitable revelation for all involved characters.

The true beauty of of Dreams and Dreamers is not in this transition, however, but in the way these revelations are handled. Nobody jumps up holding hands and singing, but the subtle differences in the way the characters say goodbye are noticeable to the thoughtful reader. Ryoga, the first to speak, demands to know if Ranma is okay. The next to speak is Nabiki, who apologizes. Finally Kuno chimes in with his suggestion that everybody go home and get some real sleep. It’s obvious the characters have changed greatly from their experience with the virtual reality machine, but it doesn’t have to be forced down the reader’s throat, and isn’t.

Well, except at the very end. Why did Ranma kiss Akane? It didn’t fit. I truly liked the subtlety of the rest of the story, but the kiss stuck out like a sore thumb. Are dreams enough to convince the pair that it’s time to start treating one another in a human fashion? Most certainly. Ranma sees Akane’s insecurities and Akane sees Ranma’s need for a little peace. But their romantic interlude dream is considerably brief. It strikes me that perhaps the author (like many) takes the Ranma-and-Akane factor as a given. This ain’t wise. The kiss was sweet, but it had no foundation.

As a side note, all of Drake’s titles seem to be references to episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A little bit of ST:TNG shows up in one of Ranma’s dreams and is very cute. Drake must be a true stickler, as the dialogue is... well, it’s direct from a particular episode, or close enough. How do I know this? The redoubtable Leslie-oneesama taped every single episode of that show... and labeled them...

Drake is apparently as obsessed as we were. The title of his other major fic, Nerima When the Walls Fell is also a ST:TNG reference, from an episode called Darmok.