Heh.  So when *are* all the refugees from other universes going to end
up together?  And does that include Ian?  Oh god, Ian would just love me
for that...  being outclassed by a megalomaniac is one thing, but being
completely outclassed by people from his own world is definitely going
to put a damper on his day...  ^_^

They get together during parts of An Alternate History of the Bubblegum
Zone.

Ah.  That explains it.  Back when I had Internet access at home, I attempted 
(several times) to download the entire thing.  And every time, it'd get about 
half-way through before it got too slow and the download timed out.  Which 
means I've got half of some episodes, and none of others.

Maybe I'll get someone else to try for me, since my computer's down (disabling 
Net access... <sigh>)

And...

Who?

Heh.  Ian Robinson, English Literature student at Bath University.  At least, 
he used to be.  Then he accidently stumbled into one of those magical shops 
that appear from nowhere.  It happened to be a bookstore, with a strong 
connection to L-space (Terry Pratchett can probably explain that better than I 
ever could).

Now, Ian's trapped in the books.  Every 24 hours, a bluefire portal appears, 
allowing him the choice of either escaping to another book, or staying in the 
current one.

Since a book is in reality merely the author's imagination on paper, Ian can 
jump to anything that has ever been written down, whether on computer, paper, 
comic, etc.  In theory, he can also jump into alternate universes of the same 
book, which means he could probably accidently jump into a fanfic.  That 
hasn't happened yet, though.

Ian, by himself, has no special powers, other than a complete unwillingless to 
die.  He suffers from several things that heroes in books usually suffers from; 
for example, the "Famous Last Words" syndrome (i.e. "Things can't get any 
worse".  And then they do), and also, while he attracts circumstances that 
place him in extreme danger, he is never killed.  Never.  Of course, the moment 
he trusts solely on luck to save him will probably be the same moment that he 
finally dies, and realising that, Ian always makes an attempt to survive, or 
escape.  Or accept his fate readily (though slightly unwillingly).

Oh, and lastly, he's got this enemy who's chasing him: Chronos.  Chronos has 
admitted himself that he has been trapped within the books for over six hundred 
years, and during that time, Chronos' sanity has slowly been eroded.  Chronos 
is a master of science and magic, and by master, I'm talking about someone who 
is definitely on (for comparison's sake) Twister's level for magic, and 
whatever high level you care to specify for science.  However, since Ian 
arrived, Ian has control over the book they are currently in (since the 
portals only appear for him, and are visible only to him).  Whenever Ian jumps 
to another book, Chronos immediately (whether he wants to or not) follows.  
Luckily for Ian, Chronos is a lover of drama and flair, and would never wipe 
Ian (or anyone else for that matter) without giving them a decent chance to 
fight back.  Chronos suffers (knowingly) from all the defects that other 
megalomaniacs suffer from.  In other words, yes, his fortresses do have 
ventilation ducts big enough to crawl through.  Yes, the button to 
self-destruct his plans is situated in a hard-to-reach place, miles from his 
base, and guarded by a handful of elite troops.  And Chronos realises all this. 
 And that's why he does it; he thinks it's fun to watch Ian constantly attempt 
to save his life by trying to thwart Chronos' plans.  Sometimes Ian succeeds... 
and sometimes he doesn't.  And only Chronos knows how many books have succumbed 
to his power already.

And that's Ian Robinson.  In fact, you should have already seen him, Hitomi.  
After all, you did read far enough to notice that bit about the harakei.  And 
yes, you are credited for it, but I'll only be able to post that when (1) I 
finish it and (2) I get someone who is allowed to upload 20k files to upload 
the story for me.

Um, does that answer your question?  ^_^

I look forward to seeing something like that.  Oh, and Hitomi, are you
going to be producing any bloopers?  I'd love to see what you could
think of.  Oh, and that goes for you other authors as well. 

Ahh...

I think you better check my section on An Alternate History of the
Bubblegum Zone, specifically under the appendix section.

As for bloopers, what are you talking about?

Okay, so this is the reason why hardly anyone has responded yet.  I think.  
Please let this be it.  I'd hate it to be because everyone understood it and 
only a few actually liked the idea.

I'm sure you're aware of the principle of multiple takes.  That is, when a TV 
company or a film producer shoots a film for TV, sometimes it take multiple 
tries to get it right.  Say, someone fluffs their lines, or misses their cue, 
or a stunt goes wrong, or a mirror catches the reflection of the camera crew... 
 you get the idea.  This, in actual fact, is called a blooper, which is just 
another word for mis-take in this context.

Each year, at least on British TV, their are at least two TV programmes which 
show the funniest TV bloopers to date.  The ones I can think of is the BBC one 
(which includes "blooper" in the title) and "It'll Be Alright On The Night".

Right, now that I've defined blooper, here's the idea.  I proposed the 
suggestion of a piece of work named "The Great Anime Fanfiction Bloopers".  As 
a few of us on the FFML discussed it, it was decided that it would be a good 
idea if as many FFML authors would write bloopers for their own pieces of 
fanfiction, and post them to the FFML.  Then, someone would collect them (at 
the moment, that's me, but only cos I've kept copies of all the bloopers that 
have been sent so far...), and then sort them out, and post the finished 
version to... um... I think that was as far as the idea went, basically because 
posting it back to FFML might be pointless, and I didn't have access to RAAC, 
so someone else would have to take up the torch.

Anyway, besides that, it seemed like a good idea to me.  And so the cry goes 
out: Is anyone going to write any bloopers? 

In actual fact, some have already been written and sent (and they're pretty 
good!)  More specifically, I currently have bloopers for "Ranko 1/2" and "There 
Goes The Neighbourhood", both by their respective authors (of whom I forget the 
names of, but I've got them around somewhere...)

But, to make "The Great Anime Fanfiction Bloopers" feasible, I'll need more.

Anyway, I hope that answered your second question.  And I really, really hope 
that you'll contribute to this.  (I would go through the entire Monkey Island 
II "Please may I have the bucket" routine, but you'd get bored of that rather 
quickly...)

Ciao,
                           Terence Fergusson
                       -- Stranded in an Anime-free College

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Murphy's Law : Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Ian's Amendment : "Unless I'm around.  Then everything
                   just goes wrong for me."
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