Author's notes

Well, if you're breaking with a habit, break it good and hard.

People who know me will tell you that writing a fic like this does not come natural to me. But when I wrote it, I wanted it to be as good as I could manage. The first draft that I sent was rather bland, mainly just Ranma talking with a few (far too few) reaction shots from Cologne.

I wanted it to be a sort of radio play, where the reader just hears what happens, and has to deduce everything that went before, and what the scene must look like. But somehow that was impractical to write and lacked the impact I wanted it to have, so I rewrote it from Cologne's perspective, to make her fear and hopelessness more tangible.

Some people - including Zen (Hi!) - told me that the breaking of bones wasn't mean enough to be real torture. I don't know - I always disliked broken bones just as much as razor cuts, only that the bones hurt more and the dull throbbing pain somehow accumulates. Therefore I had Ranma execute this kind of "Death of a Thousand Cuts" just with breaking bones instead of cutting.

Zen remarked, that Cologne knew what to expect after Ranma began, and that lowered the nastyness of torture. Again, I dunno. I think it's pretty horrific to know that someone is slowly, methodically breaking all your bones and you are powerless to do anything besides screaming your head off.

Brrr.

Anyway, I don't think I'll do something like this in a looong while. :)

Sebastian

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