Ranma 1/2: Why Sailor Pluto Hates The Bet
-Prologue-

Herein lies the prologue, also known as the flimsy rationalization for why all this can occur!

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Toltiir, the God of mischief, had an unusual visitor. This was not an odd thing in itself: he had been getting quite a few unusual visitors since he'd started The Bet. But The Bet was long over at this point and though a few random deities still came by every now and then to try their hand at creating a timeline, he had never expected this.

All it took was one glance at his visitor. Such is usually the case with Things That Should Not Be, you know. All it took was one glance to cause the poor cat deity to degenerate into babbling. "Waaaa!" he cried, "Ia nytalhlya waughnar pnak!"

Cthulhu grimaced. Oh, cut that out, will you? it sent telepathically to the screaming cat-god, It's annoying enough getting that sort of reaction from mortals.

"Oh, right," said Toltiir, seemingly recovering from the depths of madness in the blink of an eye. "Sorry about that. Er... right. So what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

Cthulhu gestured towards the pool with its many tentacles.

"Oh." Toltiir shook his head. "Sorry, the Bet has been over for quite a while now."

Cthulhu warbled at Toltiir.

"Nothing personal, Lhu, but I just can't let you make your own entry. Sorry."

The great Cthulhu pondered the situation for a moment.

Toltiir waited patiently.

At length, Cthulhu spoke (so to speak, heh heh heh): I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse.

"Hmm?"

If you let me make my own bet entry, I will agree to eat you last.

Toltiir thought about it for a moment. "... well, since you put it THAT way, how can I say no?"

Despite the fact that it did not have the necessary equipment to do so, Cthulhu gave every appearance of smirking in a manner that was far too smug for its own good. We are agreed, then.

"So what change did you have in mind?" asked the God of Mischief.

I was thinking something like... this. said Cthulhu as it brushed the surface of the pool with a few slimy tendrils.

As the ripples spread outwards, Toltiir's eyes went wide. "For the love of all that's holy...!" he exclaimed, not quite willing to believe the change that the Elder Thing had made.

But the change had been made, and it was too late to stop it now. Toltiir could only watch in horror as, within the pool, the Yggdrasil system was 'upgraded' to Windows 2000.

That was when all hell broke loose.

--- END OF PROLOGUE ---

Hey, there have been flimsier rationalizations, haven't there?

12/31/05 – I am reposting the entire series after an accident found the entire thing deleted from (gah). As I repost, I shall be editing and revising. Here goes nothing!