Ranma ½ Civilization : Saotome and Friends: Naru and Umino Special

[gemmaethanwhitaker]

One of the minor sub-plots in Setsuna's Fault/Time Lost is Naru and Umino arriving in the past 10 years earlier then the Senshi and Ranma on the island of Sicily. I decided that rather then weave that into the main narrative to give it it's own separate thing.

Now the Romans don't seem to have had a permanent establishment on Sicily, so I've moved Corsica, and also include Usagi and Naru's two other friends, Kuri and Yumiko, why should Ranma be the only one to suffer having a harem?

“So any idea what happened?” Asked Yumiko when they got back together in the middle of the fort, they had split up half an hour ago to look around shortly after the light show dropped them off.

“Well I've found the letters SPQR which the Romans used on their standards and while the map I found isn't the best but seems to be of Corsica and if I'm reading it right we're in some place called Aleria.” Answered Umino.

“So when are we? And where is everyone else?” Inquired Kuri.

“Well judging by the size of the fort and the construction, sometime about mid Republic. As for where everyone is, well I'd guess that whatever brought us here took them away.” Supplied Umino.

“And what do we do now, oh knower of things Roman?” Sang Naru.

“I shouldn't need to tell you that we survive. For that we need food, water and shelter. Any of these buildings will do for the last. There should be a well somewhere here in the fort and another in the town, again there should be food both here in the fort and in the town. The problem is that it isn't going to last forever, any meat will need to be cooked or smoked or salted or something to stop it from rotting, which I don't know how to do and I'm guessing you girls don't either.” Started Umino, before pausing.

“I know some, my mum taught me more then what I learnt in school, but never salting or smoking.” Said Kuri before turning to Yumiko.

“The same.” Added Yumiko.

“Not really, only the school classes, with my mum working she didn't have time to teach me to cook.” Responded Naru, giving Umino an evil eye.

“Sorry, but you know they don't teach us guys that sort of thing in school and my mother didn't think I was supposed to learn it, I was supposed to marry a girl who knew how to cook.” He said in his defence.

“Hmm.” Replied Naru, not really accepting his excuse.

“Well I know that smoking takes a long time and that salting uses salt, hopefully we'll find places that do both when we explore the town tomorrow and that will give us some clues. Right now we need to find the canteen or where ever it is they cook food and a well, we'll then find the nearest barracks, use one room for sleeping after gathering bedding from several.” Finished Umino.

“We aren't sleeping together, you can sleep in a different room.” Demanded Naru.

“I didn't mean anything like that.” Countered Umino.

“Good.” Huffed Naru, before walking off in one direction.

[hr]

“What are you still doing up?” Asked Yumiko of Umino, who was sitting outside the barracks they had decided to use.

“Waiting for the sun to set, I want to know what time it goes down according to my watch and compare that to tomorrow and the next day. We need to find out if the days are getting longer or shorter.” Answered Umino.

“Is that important?”

“Sort of. If the days are getting longer that means we're heading into summer, but if they're getting later it means winter. That's important for two reasons, the first is that you don't try and grow crops in winter, so if they're getting shorter we shouldn't plant too much. Secondly if I can figure out which day is the shortest, by it having that earliest sun setting time, we'll have the winter solstice and a start to a new year.”

[hr]

“What's got you so upset with Umino, Naru?” Asked Yumiko.

“That comment about us knowing how to cook. And the thing about us all sleeping in one room.” Answered Naru.

“Well what do you expect? The boys don't get cooking classes.” Responded Kuri.

“And what are you waiting for? A wedding? There's no one to marry you two.” Replied Yumiko

Now I've deliberately had them make mistakes, will have them make more in the future, if anybody has some suggestions please let me know.

 

[buytbuyt]

nice. old story.

 

[TerraBull]

Indeed.

Shame there was not more.

 

[gemmaethanwhitaker]

New thought: Like there are groups showing up to join Ranma and the Senshi there should probably be groups showing on Corsica to join these guys. So any suggestions? Just remember that they don't have a Mercury computer to translate or a Setsuna who can reasonably know every language for the past 10-20 thousand years. So any group that does show up will need a common language. Now I can finagle Umino and possibly Naru knowing bad/broken English and maybe some Chinese on Umino's part, but that's it, so any group that does show up will need a member that knows something of those.

 

[gemmaethanwhitaker]

Addition, I'm going to need some help/suggestions on food.

And I may end up posting this to spacebattles with my account there (different name then here) because I may need more help.

 

[gemmaethanwhitaker]

Why did my brain decide now was the time to ask this? Any question: Should this be here or in the Sailor Moon section of the forum?

 

[gemmaethanwhitaker]

And I've decided to make massive changes to this, so here's the first ~700 words, a good chunk of which is either new or re-written

“So any idea what happened?” Asked Yumiko when they got back together in the middle of the fort, they had split up half an hour ago to look around shortly after the light show dropped them off.

“Well I've found the letters SPQR which the Romans used on their standards and while the map I found isn't the best but seems to be of Corsica and if I'm reading it right we're in some place called Aleria.” Answered Umino.

“So when are we? And where is everyone else?” Inquired Kuri.

“Well judging by the size of the fort and the construction, sometime about mid Republic. As for where everyone is, well I'd guess that whatever brought us here took them away.” Supplied Umino.

“And what do we do now, oh knower of things Roman?” Sang Naru.

“I shouldn't need to tell you that we survive. For that we need food, water and shelter. Any of these buildings will do for the last. There should be a well somewhere here in the fort and another in the town, again there should be food both here in the fort and in the town. The problem is that it isn't going to last forever, any meat will need to be cooked or smoked or salted or something to stop it from rotting, which I don't know how to do and I'm guessing you girls don't either.” Started Umino, before pausing.

“I know some, my mum taught me more then what I learnt in school, but never salting or smoking.” Said Kuri before turning to Yumiko.

“The same.” Added Yumiko.

“Not really, only the school classes, with my mum working she didn't have time to teach me to cook.” Responded Naru, giving Umino an evil eye.

“Sorry, but you know they don't teach us guys that sort of thing in school and my mother didn't think I was supposed to learn it, I was supposed to marry a girl who knew how to cook.” He said in his defence.

“Hmm.” Replied Naru, not really accepting his excuse.

“Well I know that smoking takes a long time and that salting uses salt, hopefully we'll find places that do both when we explore the town tomorrow and that will give us some clues. Right now we need to find the canteen or where ever it is they cook food and a well, we'll then find the nearest barracks, use one room for sleeping after gathering bedding from several.” Finished Umino.

“We aren't sleeping together, you can sleep in a different room.” Demanded Naru.

“I didn't mean anything like that.” Countered Umino.

“Good.” Huffed Naru, before walking off in one direction.

“Umino, it's looks like she was upset by what you said, so just give her some space, look for a barracks for us to spend the night in, OK?” Asked Yumiko, before grabbing Kuri and following Naru.

Umino, deciding to follow Yumiko's advice for lack of anything else to do, checked out the nearest building in the direction the girls headed off in.

“Naru, wait up!” Called out Yumiko.

“What? Do you think I should applogize to Umino or something?” Demanded Naru, stopping and turning around to face her friends.

“No, but I do think you're being too hard on him. Yes, what he said was a bit insensitive, but he didn't mean anything by and he was telling the truth, OK?” Replied Yumiko.

“Hmph.” Responded Naru.

“I didn't say you had no right to be upset, just not at him, OK?” Pleaded Yumiko.

“Yeah, you two are just going out, it's not like you two had talked about your plans for the future or something, if you had you might have cause to be upset with him for thinking that women stayed home and looked after the house.” Added Kuri. “Plus I don't think any of us are likely to have careers after what's happened.”

“OK, I'll go easy on him. Now where do you think the canteen or whatever is?” Relented Naru.

“Well those two buildings over there without windows look a bit like grain silo's to my.” Said Yumiko, pointing to a pair of buildings.

 

[Deathwings]

Here's something I'm wondering : considering that I have yet to see a single Ranma 1/2 character and the focuses are definitely Sailor Moon characters, WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU POSTING THIS HERE INSTEAD OF THE SAILOR MOON FORUM ?!

 

[buytbuyt]

Because it IS a Ranma crossover. Albeit a side-story of it.

Too short.

 

[gemmaethanwhitaker]

OK, so I've finally finished up the first day and here's all of it


So any idea what happened?” Asked Yumiko when they got back together in the middle of the fort, they had split up half an hour ago to look around shortly after the light show dropped them off.

“Well I've found the letters SPQR which the Romans used on their standards and while the map I found isn't the best but seems to be of Corsica and if I'm reading it right we're in some place called Aleria.” Answered Umino.

“So when are we? And where is everyone else?” Inquired Kuri.

“Well judging by the size of the fort and the construction, sometime about mid Republic. As for where everyone is, well I'd guess that whatever brought us here took them away.” Supplied Umino.

“And what do we do now, oh knower of things Roman?” Sang Naru.

“I shouldn't need to tell you that we survive. For that we need food, water and shelter. Any of these buildings will do for the last. There should be a well somewhere here in the fort and another in the town, again there should be food both here in the fort and in the town. The problem is that it isn't going to last forever, any meat will need to be cooked or smoked or salted or something to stop it from rotting, which I don't know how to do and I'm guessing you girls don't either.” Started Umino, before pausing.

“I know some, my mum taught me more then what I learnt in school, but never salting or smoking.” Said Kuri before turning to Yumiko.

“The same.” Added Yumiko.

“Not really, only the school classes, with my mum working she didn't have time to teach me to cook.” Responded Naru, giving Umino an evil eye.

“Sorry, but you know they don't teach us guys that sort of thing in school and my mother didn't think I was supposed to learn it, I was supposed to marry a girl who knew how to cook.” He said in his defence.

“Hmm.” Replied Naru, not really accepting his excuse.

“Well I know that smoking takes a long time and that salting uses salt, hopefully we'll find places that do both when we explore the town tomorrow and that will give us some clues. Right now we need to find the canteen or where ever it is they cook food and a well, we'll then find the nearest barracks, use one room for sleeping after gathering bedding from several.” Finished Umino.

“We aren't sleeping together, you can sleep in a different room.” Demanded Naru.

“I didn't mean anything like that.” Countered Umino.

“Good.” Huffed Naru, before walking off in one direction.

“Umino, it's looks like she was upset by what you said, so just give her some space, look for a barracks for us to spend the night in, OK?” Asked Yumiko, before grabbing Kuri and following Naru.

Umino, deciding to follow Yumiko's advice for lack of anything else to do, checked out the nearest building in the direction the girls headed off in.

“Naru, wait up!” Called out Yumiko.

“What? Do you think I should applogize to Umino or something?” Demanded Naru, stopping and turning around to face her friends.

“No, but I do think you're being too hard on him. Yes, what he said was a bit insensitive, but he didn't mean anything by and he was telling the truth, OK?” Replied Yumiko.

“Hmph.” Responded Naru.

“I didn't say you had no right to be upset, just not at him, OK?” Pleaded Yumiko.

“Yeah, you two are just going out, it's not like you two had talked about your plans for the future or something, if you had you might have cause to be upset with him for thinking that women stayed home and looked after the house.” Added Kuri. “Plus I don't think any of us are likely to have careers after what's happened.”

“OK, I'll go easy on him. Now where do you think the canteen or whatever is?” Relented Naru.

“Well those two buildings over there without windows look a bit like grain silo's to my.” Said Yumiko, pointing to a pair of buildings.

[hr]

“So, the lower half of these two buildings store wheat and some sort of vegetables, while the roof has meat. Now, what do we make for dinner?” Asked Naru.

“I'm thinking we grab some of the wheat, vegetables and some of that beef and try to make gyudon, or at least something like it.” Optioned Yumiko.

“I'd say more like yakiniku on rice then anything.” Said Kuri

“So we've found the food, but what do we do about cooking it?” Asked Naru.

“Well that,” Said, Kuri pointing to a small structure near the fence. “Looks like the ovens you sometimes see Italians using to make pizza in videos, right? And the Romans are Italians, so that must be a pizza oven.”

[hr]

“Well whoever used to live here definitely burnt wood in this thing, so unless it's used to keep people outside warm, I'd say it an oven.” Stated Yumiko.

“What makes you say that?” Asked Naru.

“My grandparents are a bit old fashioned and still use a wood fire, so I've had to learn about them when we visited. So we've got the food and a place to cook it, now we just need something to cook it in and some wood for the fire.” Answered Yumiko.

“Well we know that those buildings are the granaries, but not any cooking tools, those look like stables, so I doubt we'll find anything to cook with there.” Said Kuri, pointing to the granaries and the buildings next to them.

“Well, I'm pretty sure that I saw Umino heading towards those buildings over there,” Said Yumiko, pointing to a line of identical buildings across the road from the granaries. “And if he's found something in there we can use it, if not we know not to check those buildings, or the ones like them behind the stables.”

[hr]

“Girls, is there something you need?” Asked Umino when he saw them walking towards him.

“Yeah, we need to know if you've found any cooking implements.” Stated Kuri.

“Weirdly enough I have. These buildings are all barracks,” He replied, waving to the buildings behind him. “Each has got 11 rooms, the first is set up for a single person and the rest for 8 each. The rooms for 8 have some sort of mortar and pestle along with plates, pots and all sorts of knives and forks.”

“Cool, well those are the granaries and behind them are stables,” Said Yumiko, pointing to the buildings they had investigated. “And there's an oven behind them near the wall that we'll be using, so why don't you check out the big building in the centre while we do dinner, I think we'll have checked out every building by in camp with that, or at least we'll know what every building is for.”

[hr]

“So we've got cups, plates and western cutlery for eating with, and some odd pots and big spoons for cooking with, have you girls found anything else?” Asked Naru.

“I think that's a mortar and pestle.” Stated Kuri, pointing to a large stone object sitting on the floor in a corner.

“Well we don't need that tonight, so lets lug all of this back to the oven.” Replied Naru

[hr]

“I've figured out why the pots are weird.” Said Yumiko when they got back to their oven.

“Oh?” Asked Kuri

“They're not pots, their something like those covered serving trays you see in movies. You put what ever you want cooked on this flat piece, then put this bowl shaped thing on top, and then put the whole thing in the fire and pull it out when it's done, we can probably still use them for boiling the wheat, it just might be a bit difficult, that's all. Now now much do we cook?” Was Yumiko's answer.

“Well how about one gou each?” Asked Naru.

“We don't any gou, so maybe a cup each? With twice that much water from a well?” Suggested Kuri.

“I'd go with with an extra cup full of water each, we aren't going to be able to control the heat at all in the fire and getting it out might be a challenge. Kuri, you prepare the meat and vegetables while Naru gets the water, I'll work on building the fire.” Ordered Yumiko.

[hr]

“OK, so that's dinner on to cook, how long do you think it will take Yumiko?” Inquired Kuri.

“What are you looking at me fore?” Asked Yumiko.

“It's just that you've taken the lead throughout this whole cooking via fire thing we sort of figured you would know.” Responded Naru.

“I've taken the lead because I known about wood fires not about cooking with them. That said, it's pretty hot in there so we probably don't want to leave stuff in there for more then half an hour or it will start burning, in the mean time lets find Umino so that Naru can make up with him.” Replied Yumiko, causing Naru to look upset.

[hr]

“Is that a sword?” Asked Yumiko of Umino when they found him.

“Yeah, I figured that something got rid of the Romans, so when I found the armory in that big building in the middle I grabbed this,” He replied, pointing to the sword. “Guessing that we might neede weapons. I'm pretty sure the sword is a gladius which is like a Roman wakizashi.”

“Cool, anyway dinner's cooking, we're having gyudon or yakiniku, depending upon how you look at with, with boiled wheat in place of rice.” Responded Kuri.

“Should have thought of that, the Romans are famous for their love of bread.” Replied Umino.

“Oh, do tell.” Inquired Yumiko.

“You never hear the phrase 'Bread and Circus'?” All three girls nodded their heads in response to the question. “Well the Romans are the ones who coined it, ensuring that enough grain got into the city of Rome itself was a major undertaking.”

[hr]

“What are you still doing up?” Asked Yumiko of Umino, who was sitting outside the barracks they had decided to use.

“Waiting for the sun to set, I want to know what time it goes down according to my watch and compare that to tomorrow and the next day. We need to find out if the days are getting longer or shorter.” Answered Umino.

“Is that important?”

“Sort of. If the days are getting longer that means we're heading into summer, but if they're getting later it means winter. That's important for two reasons, the first is that you don't try and grow crops in winter, so if they're getting shorter we shouldn't plant too much. Secondly if I can figure out which day is the shortest, by it having that earliest sun setting time, we'll have the winter solstice and a start to a new year.”

 

[buytbuyt]

Good call, Umino.