Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to announce "A Second Bet."  This was 
posted on the FFML-R, and I'd wait for the repost, but I think that the 
people who don't know about it yet should get a fair chance.  Read on to find 
out what I mean.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    Great Fox, the Native American god of Chance approached Mimir's well 
slowly, looking for a certain God that had a tendency to frequent it.  He was 
a large red fox at the current time, about a foot and a half from nose to 
tail, and had piercing gray eyes.  Finally seeing the God he was looking for, 
he approached the well more confidently.
    "Toltiir," he called to the black cat, who was currently sunning himself 
on the far wall of the well.  The feline God of Mischief looked up, homing in 
on the voice of an old friend.
    "Foxie Loxie!" he exclaimed, rising.  Somehow, the fox managed to wince 
at the nickname.  "Haven't seen you in a while."
    "Please don't call me that," Great Fox replied in exasperation.  "And 
I've been in pretty high demand lately.  Most overworked 3,3 God in the 
multiverse," he grumbled.
    "We just can't get by without you," Toltiir teased, causing Great Fox to 
roll his eyes.  "You missed my Bet.  I was sure that you would at least 
enter," he continued, looking sadly at his friend.
    "I never got enough time to think of a decent entry," Great Fox replied, 
shaking his head.  Sighing, he climbed onto the wall of Mimir's well, on the 
opposite side of Toltiir.  "Have you noticed how much more common planar 
crossings and fusions have gotten in the past few years?"
    "No, why?  You getting a lot of work?" Toltiir asked, watching as his 
longtime friend lay down heavily on the well's outer rim.
    "Yeah," Great Fox confirmed.  "I wouldn't mind it so much if it weren't 
for the fact that everything's turning out the same."
    "What do you mean?" Toltiir asked.
    "Everyone's asking for the same crossings, the same fusions.  Of course, 
they want accidents out of the picture, so they pull me into things, being 
the only God of Chance this side of Olympus," Great Fox explained.  "For 
example, just in the past few weeks I've had to fuse the Sailor Senshi 
baseline with a Ranma divergent five times, all with the exact same result!  
Ranma running around in a sailor fuku, Akane leading the negaverse, and 
everyone else going nuts."
    "Things're getting boring, huh?" Toltiir consoled the fox.
    "Worse.  Planar diversity is evaporating.  With all these parallel 
universes and fusions, I have to keep overseeing diversions, just to keep the 
older ones in existence," Great Fox complained.  "Plus, some outer lines are 
being ignored, lines with great potential.  If something doesn't happen soon, 
there's going to be a real problem.  The Yggdrasil is already having trouble 
keeping track of the tiny differences in all the parallels."
    "Sounds to me like you've been thinking about this for a while," Toltiir 
mused.
    "Ever since Titania won the Bet," Great Fox admitted.
    "And you've got an idea...?" Toltiir prompted.  Once again, Great Fox 
winced, having been caught.
    "I do, but I need your help.  I want to run a second Bet," Great Fox told 
him.
    "Explain," Toltiir said, interested.
    "I need to get things different again, but I don't have very much power 
of my own.  With Mimir's well, I could stretch what I have a lot further," 
Great Fox continued.
    "Then get permission," Toltiir replied flatly.
    "I have it," Great Fox admitted, "conditional upon your assistance.  My 
plan is too much for me to act upon, even with Mimir's well.  I need an Elder 
God's assistance, if for nothing more than a power outlet for the less 
powerful entries."  This caused Toltiir co cock an eyebrow (as much as a cat 
can).
    "Why in the cosmos would you need me?  With the well, even the least 
powerful God could make a fusion or a cross," Toltiir asked.
    "Umm...," Great Fox started, aware that this was the hardest part of his 
plan to sell.  "I want to include greater spirits too."  At Toltiir's look of 
surprise and disapproval, he continued, "Wait a minute!  Just think of the 
talent pool.  We need diversity, right?  Well, the best chance we have at 
getting it is by allowing more participants in the Bet.  Besides, if a 
greater spirit beats a God, how much would that inspire them to do better?"  
A long minute of silence followed this proposal.
    "And the winner's timeline would be made permanent?" Toltiir asked.
    "Yes.  One winner for planar fusions, and one for planar crossings," 
Great Fox explained.
    "Is that it?" Toltiir asked.
    "Pretty much," Great fox answered.
    "I'll do it," Toltiir said, "On one condition."
    "What?" Great Fox asked.
    "I get to call you 'Foxie' until the thing's over," he said, a grin 
splitting his feline face.  Great Fox, now officially 'Foxie,' sighed.  It 
was going to be a looong Bet.

***Here We Go!***
    Hey all!  I, as you probably have noticed from reading the header on this 
E-mail, am Flashfyre5.  Yes, for those of you who are wondering, this is 
another Bet, authorized by Gregg Sharpe.  Instead of being for Alt fics, this 
is for both Fusions and Crossovers.  Great Fox, in that little bit above, 
represents my opinions in regards to many recent crossovers and fusions that 
have been floating around lately- unoriginal (no offense to the authors).  
Now, I'm not asking you to go out and find the weirdest anime in existence, 
nor am I completely outlawing the more common ones.  I just want to see 
diversity.  A SM/Ranma crossover with Ranma fighting the Senshi for some 
reason would, if developed, be fine.  In any case, I hope to get some 
interesting responses to this.  The winners will be decided with a vote.  Oh 
well, I'm just gonna give you a list of the rules.

RULES: (In no particular order)
1.) The fic must be new- you cannot submit a fic started or finished before 
this announcement.
2.) The fic must either be 'clean,' or carry a warning if not.  I was going 
to outlaw all lemons, but after re-reading Mr. Demaine's "Ranma.05", I have 
decided that lemons, if well written, can be among the best works out there.  
However, no bondage, sexual violence, or especially rape will be tolerated.  
Any fics with any of these written in *ahem* detail will immediately be 
disqualified.
3.) The base reality must be Ranma 1/2.  Sorry to all you non-Ranma readers 
out there.  This just gives everyone a constant to gauge things on.
4.) I'm setting a limit of 2 other anime that can be spliced into the fic.  A 
Ranma/Tenchi cross and a Ranma/Tenchi/DBZ cross would be fine, but not a 
Ranma/Tenchi/DBZ/Gundam cross.
5.) The anime that you use must either be uncommonly used or, if commonly 
used, must be done in an unusual way.  Cookie cutter fics will not win this 
one.
6.) Keep the characters in character!  Please, it drives me nuts when Ryoga 
suddenly becomes Ranma's best buddy, or Ranma and Akane suddenly admit their 
undying love for one another.
7.) Entries will be accepted starting May 1, 2001 and will no longer be 
accepted after February 28, 2002.  That gives you all nine months, people.  
Use 'em.
8.) Entries MUST be sent to Flashfyre5@aol.com or SecondBet@gundamwing.org 
directly.  I'd prefer if you sent them to both, just in case I accidentally 
delete one on one of my e-mail accounts.  If they are simply posted to a ML, 
they WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED ACCEPTED.  If you want to enter, make sure that 
you send it to me.  I'm sorry to be so harsh, but I have no way of being on 
all the MLs, and I don't want someone complaining to me because they posted 
to a ML that I do not subscribe to.
9.) Rewrites will be accepted, providing that at least 75% of the fic is 
new/rewritten.
10.)You may enter as many times as you like.  You must simply write a fic for 
each entry.  Base ideas will not be accepted.
11.) If I do not receive enough entries within the nine month time period, I 
will extend it until I am satisfied that I have a reasonable number of 
entries.  Remember, as far as I am concerned, this is about getting some 
quality Ranma crossovers onto the net.

VOTING:
1.) Within the first week of March, an e-mail with all the fanfics attached 
in text format will be posted to all the fanfic MLs that I can find.
2.) Once posted, any and all who read them will be permitted to vote for 
their favorites.  Each person may chose a total of four favorites, two of 
them crossovers and two of them fusions.  The favorite for each will be 
awarded two points, and the second favorite one point.
3.) If you wrote a fic, you are not permitted to vote for it, and I will 
double check.
4.) When voting, please base your vote roughly 50% on originality and 50% on 
conventions, such as characterization, plot, action, and the other things 
that make up a good fanfic.
5.) Voting will begin on the first (1st) of March and will end on the 
thirty-first (31st) of March.  I may give you a few days leeway, depending on 
how close a count it is.
6.) As soon as all votes are tallied, the winners will be announced.  There 
will be one winner for crossovers, one for fusions, and one overall winner.  
This overall winner may be either a cross or a fusion, but will not occupy 
the winner's slot for the genre it came from.
7.) As with the fic entries, all votes must be sent to Flashfyre5@aol.com 
and/or SecondBet@gundamwing.org, for the same reasons as were mentioned above.

    I hope that this answered any questions that you all have.  If not, ask 
me at Flashfyre5@aol.com and/or SecondBet@gundamwing.org.  Remember, all 
entries/votes must be sent directly to me.  In any case, this is just the 
beginning- forward this to anybody that you think might be interested in 
participating.  I'd like a big turnout, and I think that everybody else would 
enjoy it too.  Well, that's all I have to say for now.  To all of you, I 
issue a challenge!  Can you write the best Ranma 1/2 crossover or fusion?  
Find out!

    Flashfyre5@aol.com, SecondBet@gundamwing.org
        ~Flash
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