[FFML] My own story ideas file

[Angus MacSpon]

Gary has a great idea, posting his story ideas file (and Gary, I’d love
to read some of those).  Here’s mine.

If anyone wants to pick any of these up, go right ahead.

========================================================================

"Masks" -- Ranma ½ story

It's Ranma's birthday.  A surprise birthday party.  Everyone is there.
Kodachi and Happosai both drug the punch (for wildly different reasons).
Everyone drinks (including Happosai and Kodachi, who've taken antidotes
to their own potions, but not to the mixture).  The party continues.
Those who don't live at the dojo go home.  And when people wake up the
next morning, the real fun begins ...

The interaction of the two potions has an unexpected new effect ...
Everyone's minds are shuttled around into different bodies.  Chaos
ensues (surprise).

To begin with, everyone thinks it's just them, or that it's just them
and (whoever's in their body now).  WRONG!  It's a huge multi-way
swap.

Kuno gets Ranma's body (and curse).  -- And STILL doesn't figure
out that Ranma-chan is Ranma!

Ranma (in some unlikely body), once he figures out that everyone's
been swapped around, is terrified -- because Nodoka's also been swapped,
but he doesn't know whose body she's in now.  He doesn't dare confide
in anyone in case he gives away that he turns female to his mother.  So
he spends most of his time trying to pretend that he ISN'T Ranma.

========================================================================

Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon crossover

The most unlikely romance of all time -- Kuno and Sailor Pluto!!!!

A big fight between the senshi and some monster or other.  Kuno happens
to be there, and sees it.  (He's a little older -- about 20.  No smarter,
though.)  Naturally he finds himself taking part.  He gets thrown by
the monster.  Pluto ends up catching him.  He looks at her, mutters,
"Ah ... saved by a fair maiden of unearthly beauty," and passes out.
Pluto blinks.  "What?"

The next day, Kuno runs into Setsuna.  He recognises her instantly (being
too thick to be affected by whatever normally disguises the senshi's
identities).  He starts quoting rapturous poetry.  Setsuna is flustered.
(Why didn't she see this coming?  But she can only see _probable_
futures, and this one's too way-out to have registered.)  Kuno starts
quoting Shakespeare.  Setsuna corrects his quotation.  Kuno is impressed,
and switches to Middle English (the Canterbury Tales?). Setsuna answers
in Old English (Beowulf?), and throws in a bit of Greek or Latin as
well.  Kuno in raptures.  Setsuna gets rid of him, goes home, makes
absolutely sure that nobody's watching, and laughs and laughs and laughs.

Further developments:

"Why do you keep him round?"
"I honestly have no idea."

Kuno sees Tuxedo Kamen.  He adopts a new, romantic role for himself: the
Secret Samurai!  After he's gone following his first appearence, the
other senshi see Pluto, sitting holding her head and moaning, apparently
in pain.  "What happened?  Are you hurt?"  Then they realise: she's
actually crying with laughter.  Everyone stands around, looking at her. 
Nobody knows what to do.

========================================================================

Sailor Moon story

We open on Mizuno Ami -- but not the Ami we know.  This is an Ami who
lives in perpetual terror.  Her mother is a screaming harridan,
perpetually making impossible demands of Ami and never failing to punish
her dreadfully for any perceived failure.  Her brother (brother?!) is a
psychopath who treats Ami as his ideal victim.  And school is even worse
-- filled with loathesome, psychotic characters who all have it in for
her because she's "weak."

But today, something strange happens -- a peculiar disorientation -- and
suddenly she finds herself greeted by people who seem to know her,
people who even seem to _like_ her -- people named Usagi, Rei, Makoto
and Minako.  She's terrified of them at first, especially of Makoto
(whom she knows as a notorious bully).  Finally she realises the truth:
she's not in her proper world.  She vows to keep up the pretence of
being her alter ego -- to maintain her namesake's life.  But that
suddenly gets a whole lot harder when she finds out that she's also
Sailor Mercury...

She'll gradually go from a picked-on, perpetually terrified victin to
someone who's beginning to find true friendship for the first time. Then
the Senshi will finally work out what's wrong with Ami -- she's an
impostor.  They'll confront her -- accusations -- distrust -- and the
anguish begins anew...

Finally, of course, she'll prove herself heroically.  "Our" Ami will
work out a way to return to her right world.  The two will meet briefly
before the scared-Ami goes home ... to face a world that won't know
what's hitting it...

========================================================================

Ranma 1/2 and Akira crossover

Akane is seen pulling her mallet out of nowhere (yes, I *know* — but for
the sake of this story let’s go with it)  by someone working for the
Akira project -- possibly by the Colonel himself, though he's still only
a Lieutenant at this point.

She's promptly enrolled in the project, becoming Number 32 (or some
middle-range number).  Story is set in the days before the original
Akira blowup in 1992.  She meets Akira himself, plus Takashi, Masaru,
Kyoko and Miyako. The first four are all very young.  Miyako is older
(Akane’s age?).

Akane helps Miyako escape from the project.  In return (perhaps years
later?) Miyako offers her a hint: that she, and any others she cares about,
should be out of Tokyo on December 6, 1992...

========================================================================

Sailor Moon story

The Sailor Moon storyline, transplanted into a European World War II
setting.  The Senshi are all British; they'll all have British names. 
(Actually, the names from the DIC dub should be OK, mostly.)

Sometimes they'll be fighting Dark Kingdom whatsits.  Sometimes, Germans.
Sometimes they'll be ALLIES of the Germans.  And sometimes it'll be
had to tell just who the enemy is... 

========================================================================

Oh My Goddess! story

A Bug merges with a human.  The result is just as chaotic as a normal bug
(even more so), but Skuld can't just mallet the thing without killing the
human.  Furthermore it had become *intelligent*.

(Who does it merge with?  Aoshima?  Ootaki?  Tamiya?  Megumi?  Sora?)

========================================================================

“Day of Fools” -- Tenchi story

(Set in the OVA universe; continuity-wise, this has to ignore the third
OVA series and anything later, because it relies on the mysterious-and-
possibly-evil image of Tokimi.)

Washuu finishes her latest project and goes out to stretch her legs.
She notices that a fair has set-up in a field not far away.  On a whim,
she heads over to take a look.

It's seemingly an innocent, joyful place; a calliope plays a cheerful
theme song: "It's the Day of Fools/When the wise ones play/They can ease
their burdens for today..."  She finds herself enjoying herself.  For
the hell of it, she tries a few of the games -- and soon finds herself
caught in a very subtle trap.

Each game she plays drains a little more of her intelligence. 
Gradually, without ever noticing, she regresses, until she stands, with
the mind of a six-year-old, crying because she's dropped her ice cream.

Something gets through to her at the last moment; she realises what's
happening and breaks free, to find herself in a sinister, deserted
fairground where the calliope is now playing a disturbingly altered
song:  "It's the Day of Fools/When the wise ones play/For today they
throw their minds away..."  And a man invites her to step into the red
tent at the centre of the fairground, a tent she could never quite seem
to get to earlier, where she finds herself speaking to Tokimi.

"Little one, you have become so small..."
"Who are you?"
"Why did you let yourself become so small?"

Tokimi restores her memories of godhood for a while (just while she's in
the tent).  They talk for a while, sister-to-sister.  (Tokimi says about
the trap, "If you had let yourself be defeated by it, I would have known
that my sister was truly gone...")

Tokimi not evil.  (She never sent Dr Clay to attack Tenchi&co; just to
bring Washuu back.  Dr Clay went far beyond his orders.)  Tokimi simply
wants to speak to her sister again, after so long alone...

========================================================================

Original Magical Girl story

Companion animal comes from another world to Earth to recruit three
magical girls to save his world.  He has a tough time making his way
through the interface bwteeen worlds -- it's hard to pierce, plus he's
being pursued by the monsters that he needs help to fight.  He almost
seems to get stuck half-way, but manages to fight his way through.

He emerges in a Japanese city.  It's evening.  He searches for the first
girl as the daylight fades and street-lights begin to blink on.  He can
feel the monsters around, hunting too.  Then, not far off: an exultant
howl.  One of them has picked up the trail first.  He races madly toward
the sound, and feels the girl himself: in a house just ahead.

It's full night now. He springs in through the window of the house --
and as he enters, the lights go out. The enemy is here.

He approaches the girl in the darkness.  Speaks to her soothingly.
Tells her she must transform and fight or all is lost.  He throws her
the transformation amulet; tells her the trigger phrase.  Still she
seems oddly reluctant.  At the last moment, as the monsters close in,
she finally transforms.  Something seems strange about the glimpse of
her that he sees as she changes.

Then a desparate fight in the dark.  The monster is slain, or perhaps
retreats, wounded.  The lights come on ... and he sees that there's been
some kind of horrible error.

She is thirty-six years old.



It turns out that he truly did get stuck half-way between worlds, and
time passed -- twenty years of it -- without him being aware.  In the
meantime, the girls he's looking for have all aged.

First magical girl (woman!) is single, working some kind of
middle-management job.  She's lonely, hard up against the glass ceiling
at work, and sees little future for herself.  She's not altogether
unwilling to help, but finds it hard to take seriously at first.



The second girl actually does turn out to be a girl.  They eventually
learn that she had killed in a traffic accident at the age of 17 (19
years ago) and has now been reborn.  She is 15.

There are significant clashes between #1 and #2!  Age difference,
attitude difference, personality clash, different viewpoints and
outlooks, etc.



Third "girl" is 36 again.  She's married and has three children.  One of
them is a 16-year-old girl herself!  Girl #2 has much more in common
with #3's daughter than with #3 (or #1).



Somehow, the three must manage to work together -- and find a way to
balance magic against their jobs or their households -- and go to the
companion animal's world to save it.  (Third girl’s daughter tags along,
somehow.)  When they do, they'll find that of course 20 years have
passed there as well; the world is now totally conquered, and their
mission will be one of liberation rather than rescue.

========================================================================

Oh! My Goddess / Bubble Gum Crisis crossover

Skuld was Dr Stingray's partner in inventing the Boomer.  (He was her
human "front man" so she could avoid the public eye.)  The intended final
product was supposed to be purely robotic, but she couldn't resist
experimenting with some "advanced models" -- incorporating some of her
own goddess power -- that had a kind of life of their own.

Genom, of course, were secretly observing the lab.  They surprised
Skuld, drugged her, and managed to tap into her own power.  Her mind is
too foggy to resist.  They brainwashed/mind-controlled her into raising
a Circle of Ultimate Warding around her -- and themselves! -- and
gradually expanding it to cover the entire city, driving out all Gods,
Goddesses and Demons, all supernatural influences of any kind, as they
did so.  Heaven and Hell can't touch Mega-Tokyo now.  It belongs to
Genom.

That's the backstory.

Today -- Skuld is still a prisoner.  She's drugged unconscious at all
times.  A tube down her throat force-feeds her ice-cream endlessly, and
energy probes drilled into her skull drain off her goddess powers,
maintaining the Circle and feeding what's left into boomers, making them
more than simple robots.

There's an accident -- the IV that keeps her knocked out is allowed to
run dry for a few minutes.  She comes to for a moment, and manages to
dredge up enough energy to send out one call for help into the Net,
before passing out again.

The message reaches the Knight Sabers.  It begs them to seek out someone
named Belldandy, who, they find, is living, married to Keiichi, just
outside Mega-Tokyo (right outside the limits of the Circle).  Belldandy
will be able to advise the Sabers, but not help them directly, because
she can't enter the city.  Somehow, the Sabers have to free Skuld …

========================================================================

Ranma 1/2 / Sailor Moon crossover

... Dropped him into the pit, and slammed a heavy wooden lid down over
the top.  The darkness was absolute, and full of the sound of yowling,
hissing, terrified, hungry cats.  He felt them swarming over him, felt
their claws and their tiny, sharp teeth.  Terrified himself, he began to
shout and struggle.  The level of sound in the pit redoubled; the cats,
driven to panic by his flailing about, turned on their tormentor ...

A voice in the darkness, low but clear, said, "If you lie very quiet and
still, they'll eat the sausages and fish cakes and stop hurting you."

Somehow, the calm certainty in that voice reached him through his fear.
He lay very calm and still.

The cats ate every scrap of food.  From the way they kept on sniffing
his body, and licking every spot where the sausages had touched him, he
knew they were still hungry; but slowly they settled down.  Some of them
lay down on him and began to purr.

He called out to his saviour voice, again and again, but there was no
reply.  He was alone in the pit with the cats.

After a while, his father opened the pit and let him out.

They tried the experiment again the next day, but Ranma knew what to do
now.  After that, Genma gave up, and the two moved on.  The older
martial artist was leafing through a tattered booklet of forbidden
techinques.  The Neko-ken had been a failure, but the Hornet Strike
looked very promising ...


The idea is that either Luna or Artemis was one of the cats in Gemna’s
pit.  But I have no idea where this goes; it’s just a stub.

========================================================================

Ranma 1/2 story

Akane is killed during the wedding, by Mousse.  By accident.  In setting
up a second wedding, Ranma and Akane make it clear that Shampoo and
Ukyou can come if they promise not to cause a disturbance.  Various
threats are made; eventually both agree.  Nabiki, suitably bribed,
oversees their compliance.  (Perhaps Ukyou tries to get in wearing a
wedding dress hidden under her outer clothes?)  Shampoo is annoyed
enough and unhappy enough that when she's setting out and Mousse asks
her where she's going, she spitefully says, "To wedding with Ranma." 
Technically true, but calculated to drive him nuts.  She leaves him
locked up in duck form so he can't follow; but he escapes somehow and
bursts into the chapel, in human form, just as the wedding is completed.
He launches an all-out attack at Ranma at the altar, but of course
doesn't have his glasses on, and attacks the wrong person.

Afterward ...

Mousse is in jail.  Cologne and Shampoo pack up and leave; even Shampoo
has to acknowledge that there's no hope of getting Ranma now.  Everyone
more or less expects Ukyou to move in pretty quickly.  But she shows
remarkable restraint, all things considered, and keeps a tactful
distance for some time.

Genma and Soun start working on Ranma to marry Nabiki or Kasumi instead.
Nodoka deters them with a meaningful look.  (Not that she thinks Ranma
shouldn't still marry a Tendou.  But it's too soon.)  They back off --
for now.

During the weeks following the murder, Ranma is a ghost of his usual
self.  He starts going off on long, solitary training trips; he seems
driven.  Everyone assumes that he blames himself for not protecting
Akane, but he can't be persuaded to talk about it.  At least he's taking
an interest in life again.  He returns from one trip looking haunted,
disturbed ...

Gradually Ukyou enters his circle again.  He starts eating at Ucchan's
once more.  Just casual; nothing but friends.  Until one day, suddenly
she makes a major pass at him.  Shocked, he escapes -- then realises on
his way home, sickened, that it's exactly six months to the day since
Akane died.

And so he makes his final decision.

He returns to Ucchan's the next day, waves her apology away.  Gradually
they see more and more of each other ... and eleven months after the
murder, he proposes.  It's not really a surprise to anyone.  His parents
and Soun try to protest; even Nodoka agrees that he should marry a
Tendou.  But Ranma tells them coldly that he's tried that already; and
anyway Ukyou has a valid claim as well.  Nodoka is unhappy, but is
eventually forced to accept it when Ranma pointedly says that he could
just as easily move in with Ukyou right now.

Ranma and Genma move back to the rebuilt Saotome house (they can hardly
stay with the Tendous any longer).  Ranma announces that after the
honeymoon he and Ukyou will go to visit the Kuonji family for a while,
before returning to live at the restaurant.

As the wedding date approaches, Nabiki has concerns about the whole
thing.  She approaches Ukyou and asks if she really wants to go through
with this.  "Can't you see?  He doesn't really love you ..."  "What are
you talking about, sugar?  Of course he does."

The ceremony goes off without a hitch.

And that night, the two go upstairs at the remote resort where they're
honeymooning, and Ukyou undresses seductively, and Ranma takes her in
his arms, and holds the chloroformed pad over her mouth ...

For whatever reason, Ukyou doesn't get a full dose.  She's helpless, in
a daze, but still partially aware as Ranma carries her outside, away
from the resort, to a little clearing in the nearby forest.  There's an
intricate design marked out on the ground.  Ranma lays her down in the
centre, lights candles, rings bells, etc, and chants in a language she's
never heard, reading from an ancient scroll ...

Then her head swims, and a sudden darkness blinds her, and there's a
terrible, crushing pain in her head ...

She opens her eyes to see Ranma hovering over her anxiously.  "Are you
all right?" he says.  "Can you hear me?  Akane, are you all right?"

Ukyou tries to answer, but she can't seem to move.  Then, to her horror,
she feels her body moving without her volition, and her mouth opens and
she hears herself saying, in Akane's voice, "Ranma?  What happened?  I
feel strange ..."


-- This is the end of chapter 1.  Chapter 2 (of 3, probably) covers
Ranma settling down with the revived Akane, and reveals the new
situation.  The spell, or whatever, than Ranma has used to bring Akane
back has performed a general substitution: Akane for Ukyou.  Everyone
now remembers that Ukyou died (perhaps in an ordinary accident), not
Akane.

Ranma found the spell in a scroll that he discovered on one of his
training trips after Akane's death.  It requires that the substitute
love the caster -- hence, with Shampoo gone, it had to be Ukyou -- and
has to be cast exactly a year after the deceased's death.  (The prospect
of using it -- killing a friend to bring Akane back -- is what had him
looking haunted and disturbed, earlier.)

At first Ukyou is locked in the background; she can see and hear, and
even feel, but she cannot influence enything; she cannot make herself
known.  Gradually Ukyou works out what's happened; eventually she
manages to make contact Akane, and explains.  It takes a while to make
Akane believe it.  Once she does ...

The chapter ends at a mealtime.  The scene is probably from Ranma's POV.
He sits down to eat ... and "Akane" serves him a perfect okonomiyaki,
with Ukyou's classic "signature" painted on it.  He looks up in horror
-- and Akane gives him a very knowing smile and says, "What is it?  Is
something wrong ... Ranchan?”


-- Angus