[FFML] My story ideas file

[Gary Kleppe]

Back in the day when I did a lot of writing on the FFML, I kept a file 
with ideas for stories I was thinking of writing. With the list going 
away, I thought people here might be interested in seeing it. I've 
removed a few entries that I *did* actually end up writing, plus a 
couple more that didn't age well.

I'm not going to write any of these. Anyone reading this is welcome to 
write any of these ideas or do whatever else you want with it; just give 
me credit for anything of mine that you use. Critical comments are also 
welcomed.


IDEAS FILE

"Mercy"

IDEA: Kodachi meets with Ranma under the pretext of having a reasonable
discussion about their relationship; but she drugs him and attempts to
force herself on him, until her mother intervenes. Mom, the head of the
Kuno clan, is appalled, and confines Kodachi to her room, insisting
that she must commit ritual suicide in three days to restore the family
honor. This doesn't sit right with Ranma, but the Tendos don't think
it's any of their business. Ranma has an argument with Akane about it
and ends up leaving the house. Kasumi inadvertently (?) reminds Akane
about a dog she had ten years ago. Akane remembers how she loved the
dog, but it became rabid and had to be put down; but when she looked in
the dogs eyes as it was about to die, she saw the same dog that she'd
known all along. Later, both (female) Ranma and Akane burst into the
house where Kodachi is being held, both dressed in black rose leotards
and carrying gymnastics weaponry. The two look at each other confused
for a moment, and then Ranma says to the guy guarding Kodachi something
like, "OHOHOHOHO! Black Rose number thirty-seven shall be free!"

Later, Kodachi is leaving town, and she promises Ranma and Akane that
she'll behave herself. They don't believe a word of it, but are glad
that she'll be someone else's problem.

This was inspired by some really bad fic on the FFML where Ranma meets
a bunch of gang members raping a woman, and he kills them. (Megane 6.7
ended up MSTing it.)


"Ranko's Seven"

IDEA: Ranma/Blake's 7 fusion. Ranko Blake is a working single woman in a
future Earth. She's known for organizing rent strikes and civil
disobedience and such, but is otherwise a law-abiding citizen until she
meets up with one Soun Tendo. Soun tells her that he tracked down her
parents (who were supposedly living on one of the outer worlds), and
found that they never existed. He's discovered some sort of connection
(dunno what) between her and Ranma Saotome, an anit-Federation rebel who
disappeared several years ago. Ranma was a psionic who could generate a
powerful whirlwind force (hiryu shoten ha). The theory is that Ranko IS
Ranma, having had his memory wiped and body altered through some
mysterious technology.

Soun takes Ranko to an illegal meeting outside of town and tells her of
Federation atrocities; she doesn't believe him, until the police break
up the meeting by shooting everybody (except her, as she narrowly
escapes). Soon, she ends up being sent off to a prison planet, along
with Akane Stannis (a smuggler and Ranma's ex-wife, who is none to
happy about his having run out on her and intends to kill him if she
finds him), Nabiki Avon (computer genius who got caught embezzling
money), Ryoga Gan (who wants to kill Ranma for perceived past misdeeds,
but he has an implant that turns him into a piglet whenever he tries to
kill), Vila Gosunkugi (thief, pickpocket, coward in the face of
violence).

While en route to the prison, the ship encounters a mysterious
spaceship; our heroes eventually end up escaping on it, deciding to use
the ship's superior technology to bring down the Federation. It's the
Jusenkyo, built by unknown beings using mysterious technology. It
includes a computerized Guide, and Teleport Pools; the latter can send
people to and from a planet while the ship orbits it. Ranko tries the
teleport, and discovers its side effect (only on her): It changes her
into Ranma. After nearly being killed by Akane, she teleports back to
the ship and she's herself again, but reports get back to the
Federation that Ranma is still alive.

Later, they pick up Cally Kasumi, who is a super-telepath but won't
admit it to anyone, not even herself. She lives in a sort of happy
delusion, but drops helpful hints now and then. Information suggests
that Kasumi got powers during the same experiment in which Ranma did,
and that others participated as well.

Kodachi Servalan is the main enemy. Supreme commander of the Federation
military, scheming to one day take over completely. She's highly
intelligent and devious, and also secretly a psionic with the power of
tactile telekinesis, e.g. to manipulate objects that she's touching.
She got these powers in the same experiment as the other two, but this
fact has been erased from history. Kodachi and Nabiki were college
roomates back in the day; Kochi was the idealistic one who wanted to
remake the world for good, while Nabby only wanted to get rich.
Kodachi's current main flunky is Pantyhose Travis, a military officer
with a grudge against Ranma who he thinks programmed his name into the
Fed computer system (it was actually Kodachi).

The group tries to track down Happosai, a scientist who has run from
the Federation and set up his own planet. He's known as a pervert and a
practical joker. But when they get to his planet it's Orackurenai that
they find, an android in the form of a pretty girl but with the
personality of an aggressive young man. Orackurenai has a number of
useful abilities, like being able to tap into Federation computers.

The group goes after the central computer system that runs all aspects
of ordinary life in the Federation, which according to Orackurenai can
be found in Earth's Antarctic. There are traps, and Ryoga is apparently
killed (unknown to all, he escaped by turning to piglet form, and now
blames Ranko), and it turns out that the computer has a backup system
somewhere else so destroying it doesn't change anything. Ranko
concludes that Ranma, who still may or may not be her, was an idiot for
trying to take on the Federation by himself when he should've been
doing mass organizing.


"Doll"

IDEA: Gosunkugi sees an ad for a life-like, life-size female doll in a
magazine. (Yes, one of *those* dolls.) Seeing that his crush on Akane is
going nowhere, he breaks down and decides he wants it. But he can't
afford it, so he goes to the Kuno residence, telling Tatewaki that a
helpless is damsel being held for ransom. Tatchi gives him the money
while his sister feeds Gos brownies. Gos buys the doll, and rather
embarrassedly buys night clothes for it. He's a little nervous when
both Kuno siblings drop buy his house later, but both of them treat the
doll as if it were a real girl and evidently can't tell that it's just
a doll. Later, Gos is about to you-know-what with the doll, but he sees
the thing come to life! It tells him that it's a spirit from some
fantasy realm or other, and promises him orgy upon orgy of lovemaking
if he follows her back to her realm.

Gos panics, and spends the night in the bathroom.

When he wakes up, the doll is a doll. He remembers ingesting Kodachi's
brownies, which were evidently laced with hallucinogens. Still, he
gives the doll to Tatewaki, who thereafter spends his time enthralling
it with his poetry and wit.

A "Blame Ed Becerra" production; Ed inspired this with a link that he
shared on IRC.


"The Actor"

IDEA: Gosunkugi takes an acting class in college. The prof assigns him
to create a role that's vastly different from his normal persona, and
to act out that role; his role ends up being an in-your-face tough guy.
He and one of the women in class (who is similarly unassertive until
she plays her character who is a femme fatale) date and eventually
marry. They seem bored and frustrated with their marriage, until one of
them gets the idea of getting back into character. (Maybe use their
married life as a framing story, and flash back to college?) This is
meant to evoke a "Rumic Theater" vibe.



"Bad Hair Day"

IDEA: Yura of the Hair (from Inu-Yasha) fights Ranma and friends. All
seems lost for our heroes, until a certain Ranma character shows up.
Aloha, keiki!


(Kodachi gets Ranma fic)

IDEA: Ranma decides to get rid of the one fiancee he's sure he doesn't
want. He comes right out and asks her what it would take to get her to
stop pursuing him, and she makes a bet with him: He has to let her
"teach" him for a week. If he doesn't feel he's learned something useful
in that time, she'll leave him alone thereafter. If he does, he owes her
a kiss.

He accepts the bet. She introduces him to the game of "Kodachi-ball,"
(think Calvinball) which she wins at every time by coming up with a new
rule at the end -- until Ranma eventually starts making up his own
rules. They do other things together, and Ranma actually finds it
liberating to discard some of the rules that he's always lived by. Near
the end of the week, one thing he does goes wrong and angers the Tendos.

In the end, Ranma does decide that he's learned something, but won't
kiss Kodachi. She agrees that he has learned. Ranma is thrown out by the
Tendos, and he and Kodachi become a couple of sorts. He sees the two of
them as complementing each other in a way -- Kodachi as passion, and
himself as discretion, both necessary for a worthwhile human existence.

(Can this be believable for Ranma? This always seems to be the problem
with alt-matchup fics. Perhaps a joke gone astray leaves Ranma in
trouble with the law, making him leave Akane so she doesn't have to
share his woes. Perhaps not.


"Ranma 2/2"

IDEA: We see a teenage girl somewhere who has a problem. She turns into 
a boy
and back at unpredictable times for no discernable reason. She hears of
someone else who has a similar problem, and goes to Nerima to find this
Ranma. It turns out that she is linked to Ranma, so that wherever she is
she changes gender whenever Ranma does. (Does this idea go anywhere?)


"?" Ikkoku/Ah Megamisama crossover

Yusaku Godai accidentally gets the Relief Office on the phone, and Urd
misunderstands his problems. She sends Belldandy to be his new girlfriend,
which of course sends Kyoko into a fit of jealousy. And then, um,
something.


"Miracle Girl" Fusion

Basic idea: Alan Moore's "Miracleman" (aka "Marvelman") series done in
a Magical Girls vein. Sailor Moon would probably work well, but another
series or even original MG characetrs could as well.

So... Usagi Tsukino (or other character) is a working-class twenty-
something woman, married without children. Her life is fairly normal,
except for strange dreams she's been experiencing. One day, during a
stressful moment (she's at a bank robbery, or something) a certain
phrase pops into her mind, and she transforms into Sailor Moon (or
other MG character). After mopping up the crooks, she goes back and
shows her husband, only he laughs at the obviously ridiculous story she
tells about fighthing youma and such as a child. Her memories are
obviously false, but her powers are real. Why?

I'm happily ignorant of Sailor Moon. :) Not sure where the story would
go after this beginning; don't want to follow Miracleman too closely.


"Gosunkugi Writes a Fanfic"

Good ol' Gos is writing a story using Charlie Brown. In it, Lucy tells
CB to kick the football she's holding, and he says forget it, I'm not
falling for that again. Then he sees a glowing woman who says she's his
avatar of cosmic power. She fills him with energy, and he zooms toward
the ball, ready to give Lucy the surprise of her life.

Gos hits save and exit as it's time for school. He walks along with the
imaginary Charlie Brown from his story, who provides running
commentary. There's a Christian evangelist there who tells Gos Jesus
suffered for your sins, but Gos walks on by. Then he gets harrassed by
bullies, but Akane breaks it up. The two have a brief conversation and
she mentions that she isn't Ranma's fiancee anymore, but doesn't
elaborate as school is starting. Gos is excited that Ranma is evidently
out, and particularly hopeful given that he was the one she confided
her secret to, with imaginary Charlie saying way to go. Other stuff
happens (?) and eventually the day's over. Gos sees Akane and runs over
to her. Akane makes him promise not to tell, and shows Gos a wedding
ring. She's not Ranma's fiancee, she's his wife. Gos is stunned. The
imaginary Charlie Brown says he's leaving, he doesn't want to hang
around with a loser. Gos feels alone, but then a thought occurs to him,
and he starts running towards home.

Cut back to the evangelist from before. He's having a crisis of faith,
feeling like he can't get anyone else to understand things the way that
he does. At that point Gosunkugi runs past him, calling out "I
understand!"

At home, Gos continues writing his story. Charlie Brown is about to
kick the ball, but Lucy jerks it away at the last moment, and he falls
on his back. As she leans over him, she sparkles with silvery energy.
"Funny thing about cosmic power avatars, Charlie Brown," she says.
"Everybody has one!"

Gos sends Akane a quick email offering best wishes and promising to
keep her secret. Gos and imaginary Charlie Brown walk off somewhere as
two likeable losers.


"Realms of Fantasy"

We see Ranma walking through a hospital to visit someone. An argument
he just had with Akane is still on his mind. Then Gosunkugi (yeah, him
again; what can I say, I like the guy) is in a D&D-style fantasy
universe, using mad skills to outwit evil-doers. A woman he saves asks
him his name. "I'm Gosunkugi. You should know me. Everyone does."

Cut back to Ranma, and we discover that Gos is in a hospital bed, his
fantasy universe being an actual fantasy. It turns out he inhaled the
same incense that Akane did during original series volume 34, but they
didn't notice him at first. Having been under the influence longer than
Akane had been, he's now getting to the point where he's starting to
lose all interaction with the real world and go comatose. Ranma asks
whether they tried having him smell mosquito repellent (which is how
Nabiki got Akane to wake up), but they did and it didn't work. We
intersperse scenes of Gosunkugi in the fantasy world with Ranma trying
to wake him up in the real one, but Ranma only becomes a villain in his
story and this clearly isn't helping. Ranma asks to use the phone, and
tells the person on the other end that he needs help.

Back in fantasyland, Gos hears a voice. "Can you hear me?" The
characters there tell him it isn't real, but to him it's unquestionably
more real than anything else. He wakes up to see that it was Akane
whose voice he heard. Later he observes that his body aches, and the
pain is a sign that this is reality.