A tiny - Far Tinier than Usual - New Years Present.

Hey everybody, Happy New Year and all that.  I will be posting the first two January polls tomorrow (or later today, rather) but I did want to give my Ranma and Other fans a bit of a present this month as I have always managed to in the past. Unfortunately, the time sptnd on Death’s Avenger took so much time, coupled with the RL issues of helping to watch a toddler and other family stuff, getting a full chapter of, say, the Kuroinu/Ranma or An Aunt’s Touch, my second Ranma/HOTD crossover, isn’t going to happen.  Frankly, today’s the first day I’ve had free that I didn’t spend on Death’s Avenger or going over Journey02 and Effect16 that Hiryo got back to me… and even today I spent a lot of time helping with the toddler. 

(And no, I did not think of doing a HP gift.  Ya’ll Got Death’s Avenger and Bhaalson Remodel.  That should be enough, LOL.)

So, I decided to look back through December’s Plans and stuff document, and take a look for things I could use to create a few outlines for stories I would never be taking up full-time, but which would maybe get ya thinking or at least give you all something to read for a few minutes. These kind of stream of consciousness stuff is waay easier to write than concentrating on one fic or another.

With that, and the fact I was in a major fantasy bender this past month, I present two ways I could take a Ranma/Mobuseka crossover and the way I would take Shezza’s Altered Destiny.

First Altered Destiny.  A brief summary of the original:  As a child, Rand goes with Tam on a brief journey to try and convince a Aes Sedai to come and look at Tam’s wife.  This fails and worse, during the journey, Rand’s ability to channel is found out when he does so to protect himself.  He is gentled, but this doesn’t matter. He is still the Dragon Reborn, destined to fight the Dark One. His Father, in an effort to find something for his son to concentrate on, trains him to become a Blade Master.  This leads to Rand leaving Two Rivers and going on adventures. 

The original is on hold, and has been for two decades now. 

What I would do: First, after making certain that Shezza is either no longer around or willing to let someone take up his story, I would enlarge the time spent in Two Rivers:

1.      Show Rand training with Tam, his friendships with Perrin and Mat.

2.      Lean into Manetheren by having the boys start going exploring and learning more about the area’s past.  Ruins, writing, manner of speech.  This would be something the three of them would only share with their families, particularly Tam.

3.      Push an emphasis on how Rand is different here.  The Gentling hollowed out his mind and emotions, leaving him as very focused, logical and incredibly socially awkward, but more in a way where he knows about social cues, but just doesn’t see the point to them. If you can’t explain something logically or with examples at least, he isn’t going to listen to you.  Simply shouting and glaring is not going to get you anywhere. 

4.      Clashes between Rand and a young Wisdom-to-be.  Rand gives respect when earned or explained.  He isn’t going to care overmuch for someone who just makes demands, as he sees it, or assumes.  Egwene will just be completely unfathomable to him, as will most girls at the time.

Then, after Tam has declared that he cannot teach Rand more and Rand leaves, more changes.

·       More Min.  I think the two of them traveling for a time, and the two of them getting to be friends at a young age would be good for Rand.  Morraine will also be peripherally aware of Rand through Min, but only as Min’s friend and Lan realizing the youth will become truly dangerous in time. Rand will think her an Aes Sedai, and will have… issues with them as in the original.

·       Rand meeting his half-brother Galad... without either of them actually knowing of that connection. Both of them will still be young, around fourteen, but Galad will have been called to deal with a local dispute as a lord of his house, where the two will meet.  After dealing with Whitecloaks being the assholes they are, Galad will be caught up in the idea of traveling the world with Rand and doing good deeds and perfecting his swordsmanship.

·       Instead of going to the capital, the two, under Galad’s direction because he has no desire for this new adventure to end, bypass it, heading to the Border States.  This would entail a larger number of adventures in the Borderlands.  They would face trollocs and Myrddraal leading to the first battle against Slayer.  Mind Games Galore! By the end of their time, the two of them would have made fast friends and allies with all the Border States, and tales of their adventures would start to be shared by gleeman, thanks to a certain gleeman they would have met.  

·       Here, like in Shezza’s story, Rand’s Aiel heritage would become known.  Morraine would come looking, but too late to find him.    

Eventually, the pair would head back to Caemlyn.  The two would separate, but then events would start to follow Shezza’s story in how Rand and Elayne would meet.  Rand would, however, have a far worse reaction to Elaida, resulting in a lot more tension and angst.  Slayer, as in the original story, but doesn’t try his mind games just yet. Galad will stay, learning under the local general and hammering the Whitecloaks, while Rand would head to the Aiel wastes.

Here again, some changes. Instead of going straight to the wastes, Rand would head back to Two Rivers.  There, after more Egwene awkwardness and Nynaeve bullheadedness insues, but Perrin and Mat eventually leave with Rand.  This Rand is more open about the troubles of the world, and what he’s done, with scars to prove it.  Mat and Perrin, pulled in by their friend’s awoken Ta’varen status, travel together for a bit, helping Galad against the Whitecloaks, learning still more about Manetherin, and meeting Min again.  Now, the Slayer come in and plays mind games with Perrin and Rand.

A.      Rand separates from the others, heading into the Aiel Wastes.  Unlike in the original, he just doesn’t make any effort to try and understand the Aiel outside of training with them. He does describe Slayer however, and with his past in the Borderlands, he gets along well enough with them as they try to explain their ways and his real mother.

B.      Perrin and Mat meet some Aes Sedai in the Borderlands, fighting against incursions from the trollocs and their attempts to kidnap children, taking Rand’s place for a bit.

C.      Rand leaves the Aiel to rejoin his friends, and, unlike in the original, Aviendha hasn’t fallen in love with him or anything like that.  Several Spearmaidens do go with him though, because they still see him as a brother or son like in the original. 

D.     Galad, done with breaking the Whitecloaks, joins them just as Rand and his companions arrive, helping to wipe out a trolloc band, but finding more leading to the confrontation with Slayer as in Shezza’s fic.  More allies and Galad though, mean it goes very badly in the end for Slayer, while the blacksmith creature is still killed and its hammer taken by Perrin.

E.      The trolloc army is still smashed by the power of the well, but more.

Up to this point, I’ve outlined what I would change of Shezza’s fic to make it my own.  From here on, I would be writing it myself.

So, things this fic would contain from now on:

1.      I was gentled, but I got better… sort of.  Rand will be able to wield Saidin through his blade and other objects, but can’t touch it himself. He won’t ever be the most powerful, but he will have a lot of knowledge and ability. He will have helped Logain as he did in Shezza’s fic. As his adventures continue, the mental issues Rand faced since his gentling will slowly shift, never going entirely away but changing over time to the point where he is more normal. Still awkward, still logical over everything, but that’s it.

2.      No Dagger for Mat.  Self-explanatory.

3.      Rand, Perrin, Mat and Galad form a very odd quartet.  They would be the main characters of the fic, with none of the womenfolk serving as perspective in terms of scenes, but they will still be there.

4.      Split Tower. Thanks to Rand’s… reaction to Elaida and the Reds, there will be a marked schism in how nations view the Tower, and how the Aes Sedai view themselves.  The Black Ajah will be almost accidentally outed, and that will cause still more problems.

a.      Political ramifications.  LOTS.  To start, Logain and Rand will ally early, and this will have ramifications across the board.  As will the fact that other Saidar users can use items to help against the taint.

b.      Minor wars, conflicts and battles.  The Black Ajah will be openly using their powers, and drawing in the Forsaken swiftly.  Meanwhile the group allied with Rand will hammer both the Black and Red Ajah, and be operating under a series of new orders.

c.       Seanchan mauled.  Before they arrive, there will be a powerful force of Saidin and Saidar users against them. They’ll face severe opposition from the start, and be basically beaten back into the sea, then drowned there in droves.  No slaving assholes on this continent, thank you.

d.      Manetheren restoration… Mat will basically be accidentally trying to do this, and after a while Perrin and Rand will get behind it and push.

5.      Slayer killed early on.  He will not have survived meeting Galad and Rand at the Eye of the World. 

6.      Galad/Egwene – Egwene will be one of the first Aes Sedai not being trained at the tower.  She will become a Caemlyn Sedai. Galad would eventually become her Warder.

7.       Morraine is just along for the ride.  Rand and co will have caused so many ripples that by the time she comes into their orbit, any chance of controlling or even directing the Dragon Reborn will have gone out the window.  Being a smart woman, Morraine will realize this and will adapt… not without some cursing. 

8.      Rand/Morraine/Elayne/Min(best girl) pairing.  Aviendha just would not be patient enough nor would Rand understand at all. 

a.      Morraine – political, historical advisor and something of a sexy older woman vibe which, with Rand aware girls are interesting, kind of blindsides him occasionally. 

b.      Elayne – powerful Aes Sedai, princess and fighter, plus the one to really make Rand aware women are interesting and the first one to confess.

c.       Min – goes from sister to lover and by far the closest to Rand for a lot of his adventures. Neither really know how to segue into the whole attraction thing, but Min will be the first to come to the others and wonder about sharing.

9.      Forsaken taken apart.  Many of them will show up only the once before dying to balefire. I… don’t know how Lanfear and what’s his face, the Forsaken leader, would honestly react to a Dragon Reborn who can’t channel.

Hmnm… that seems to be enough for this fic. I could do more but I think you get the idea. LOTS of violence, not nearly as much gender-related miscommunication or driven conflicts, and just a lot of good versus evil, with the three Ta’varen influencing events all around from almost the moment Rand leaves Two Rivers with his father’s blade in hand.

Now, two Mobuseka ideas for Ranma.  These would mainly be for shits and giggles, and I hope you enjoy at least these outlines.

Ranma Roseblade.

First, an oldy but a goody: During the adventure with the age regression mushrooms, Ranma runs afoul of an old enemy of Happosai.  This magic user, aware of Ranma’s school of martial arts, sends him through a dimensional portal. Ranma shows up in his thirteen-year-old body in a portion of Holfort at speed, leaving quite a large crater.  After happening to a group of pirates in the midst of a raid and deciding, no, he’s not going to let rapists and killers walk free unless its off the edge of a plank, Ranma takes their ship and then heads out to search for information and trouble.  Information is in very short supply until he teaches himself the local language, and at one point, Ranma is taken to be the pirates who previously owned the ship.  After crashing said ship into his accuser, he comes face to face with a 17-year-old Dorothea Roseblade, who, after a series of misconceptions, fights, and attempts to spank him, decides that this youth who can’t speak their language is far too valuable to go his own way.  She decides to take him in, and, after many more misconceptions and lack of true communication, Ranma is taken in by the Roseblades.  A communication spell is found, although, of course, the confusion doesn’t end there.  Indeed, it only gets worse, especially when Ranma’s curse comes out to play. 

Things this fic would contain:

1.      Ranma adopted as a Roseblade.  Stuck in his thirteen-year-old body and with no way to regain his true age or return to his own dimension, much to his chagrin, Ranma is forced to adapt to live in this strange alternate world.  He will (eventually) accept being adopted into the Roseblade family, almost all of whom will be able to see how special he is.  However, his outright rejection of any kind of arrangement in terms of marriage will make them need to adopt him instead.

a.      Bro-con Diedre.  She will have seen Ranma’s combat abilities and then go on to the Academy, becoming bitterly disappointed from all the weaklings there, while also training with her older sister and Ranma from the moment he’s adopted into their family. And since he has been adopted, there’s no issue with consanguinity… whether or not Ranma agrees is another matter.

b.      Political issues – the matriarchal Roseblades having a young man so capable will draw vultures, good and bad.  His curse will keep a lot of people away, but will also make people have some interesting ideas, all of which Ranma would like to take a flamethrower to.

c.       You’re a noble, Ranma.  Ranma will need to learn about how to lead, manage people and to both act in polite society and hide his emotions better.

d.      Roseblades ascendant.  As Ranma will think going into dungeons and clearing them out is just heaps of fun, the Roseblade faction will grow in strength and power to rival the royal family and the Redgrave factions.

2.      Go forth and Adventure.  Yeah, heap tons of Ranma just living the life of an adventurer along with his new nee-chans. 

a.      Monsters and mayhem.  Ranma would both explore dungeons different than those in Mobuseka, but also attain a lot of treasure and things from the pat.  No Luxion, but he might run into another random AI.  

b.      Cross-border problems.  Hearing about Ranma’s skills and abilities, a Certain Black Night will come and try his luck, only for Ranma to defeat him outside his armor and take his sword. In return to

c.       Early Olivia sighting.  Ranma will meet the Saintess early and they will become fast friends over food, a liking for animals, and Ranma’s general fun-loving attitude, while Olivia will see in Ranma someone who needs to be taken care of and also can look after her in turn.

3.      Incidental deforestation.  Ranma will, almost accidentally infiltrate then expose the Forest of Ladies.  This will create a huge wave of issues.

a.      Frampton falling.  His connection to the forest of Ladies will be discovered, and he will be tried and removed from his posts, along with all his machinations coming into the light.

b.      Mylene Nee-sama. After the offer of one of his AI to be her assistant, Mylene will be willing to do nearly anything Ranma asks, to say nothing of his general attitude and willingness to be led by Feminine Authority Figures™.  Yes, this Ranma will not have met his mom yet, and have almost no defense against older women who order him around without the use of violence. (That was Dorothea’s problem, she tried to cow him with violence, rather than just her voice). 

4.      Cross border…friends? In return for returning the Blake Blade, Ranma and Olivia will be given access to dungeons in Fanoss territory.  Uncaring of glares sent his way and the greater political ramifications this will cause, Ranma goes, only for Mylene to ask him to spy for Holfort.  Cue second AI making waves by finding out certain secrets. 

a.      Hertrauda coming to the fore.  While Ranma won’t get along well with Hertrude given her general attitude and her tendency to want to conquer Holfort, Hertrauda’s simple wish to be free and live without her so-called destiny to sacrifice herself via the Flute would pull at Ranma’s heart and resonate with him.

b.      Black Knight turned rival.  Simple enough to understand, but once Hertrauda is ‘kidnapped’ it will come to the fore.

c.       Hertrude, more than a pretty face.  With her so-called protecter gone, the flutes destroyed, and their ‘allies’ in Holfort gone, Hertrude will finally be able to move against the warmongers in her country… once she is made to understand the necessity and her own indoctrination, anyway. This will not be easy and Ranma and Hertrude will clash a lot. However, Hertrauda will keep the peace.

5.      Five Morons sidelined.  With Olivia being given the Saintess items, Marie getting run over by Diedre in her effort to meet the prince (Diedre was searching for Ranma) and both Greg and Chris after Ranma’s female form, there won’t be nearly as big an issue with Jilk, Julius and Brad being interested in the same girl.  Leon will still step up, but more to make a lot of money and because of his own desire to hurt them than anything else. Honestly, Ranma will have solved most of the world-ending stuff, and Julius and the rest just won’t really register except as annoyances.

a.      School Shenanigans.  With Olivia under the Roseblade’s protection, anyone bothering her, from Marie all the way up to the chief moron, the prince, will be facing Ranma’s fists and Deidre’s Rose whip sword… Yes. Ranma will find such a thing for her in a dungeon. Yes she will think it was romantic.  No, it won’t have been meant as such.

b.      Friendly Rival, unfriendly Rival.  Angelica and Ranma will actually get along kind of well, but without any romantic overtones, because she’s still madly in love with Julius despite how bad they are for one another, and he’ll be involved with someone else too. Rather, Angelica will kind of envy Ranma and his abilities, and try to push her own magic to be able to match him, which Ranma will welcome, as having another . Deidre, on the other hand, won’t actually know or care about that, and, lost in her Bro-con world, will try to pick fights with Angelica to get her away from Ranma. 

c.       A happy Leon.  With Ranma taking center stage for the most part and only needing to step in to be Angelica’s champion, the Forest of Ladies demolished, and everything else, Leon will be able to fade into the background easily, just as he always apparently wanted to… at least for the first game.  Heh. 

d.      Marie Marvelously Mad.  Marie will be fucking furious with Ranma, and horrified that he isn’t even doing it on purpose.  She will at first think he’s a downloadable character from the first game, only to realize he was from their world later on, and horrified by the idea martial artists and so forth were real rather than rumor.

6.      Pairings: Ranma/Hertrauda/Olivia(?) Ranma and Hertrauda will get along really well, as mentioned above, and she will join Olivia as a sort of adventurer protégé to Ranma, but one who… well, she’ll be the innocently sexy type, and Ranma just won’t have any defense against it. Olivia will be much the same, but is more prudish, and self-effacing, so won’t press her suit for a bit.  It won’t be until Ranma’s forced to do tea parties where she will truly realize she’s fallen for her best friend.  She will have issues though…

a.      Attempted possession X 3.  Each time Olivia comes close to one of the Saintess relics, it will try to take her over, only for her to need to beat it down.  Ranma and her other friends will see the way her mood and personality changes and help her deal with it, but this won’t have a good impact on her self-confidence.

b.      Hertrude the clitclamper – she will have serious problems with Hertrauda leaving Fanoss – wants to go to school, have fun, and knows that others will try to capture/use her – and Ranma in particular.  He will need to go through several ordeals to get her approval.

7.      (THIS GOES FOR BOTH FICS) Split Loyalties.  All of the AI that scans Ranma or comes into contact with him will see him for what he is: a pure Old Human, without an inch of magic. His odd abilities will not be easily understood and will cause them issues, as will the curse, but his DNA will be undeniable.  As such, a lot of them will feel split loyalties from him to their master, be it Leon or someone else. 

Overturning the Board:

This one is a bit more like canon, because, well…

A few weeks after the Wedding Disaster, Akane finds herself in a certain Wandering Magic Shop, where she finds a game that is apparently able to make the wish of anyone who beats it come true.  Arrogance rearing her head and only seeing that it’s got fighting and hot looking guys, she buys it. However, the more she plays it, the more frustrated she becomes because of how much effort you have to put into it to make any of the so-called capture targets worth fighting with, to say nothing of the actual fights. 

This is a source of amusement for Ranma, who, true to form, taunts and needles her a lot about it.  That is, until Akane, fed up, shouts about how it’s supposed to make your dreams come true if you beat it. She taunts him, saying there’s no way he would ever be able to play it, let alone beat it. 

However, this activates Ranma’s RDLitis (Ranma Don’t Lose) and he takes her bet.  For days he stays up playing through the otome game, hating every minute of it, having a lot of moments where he wants to run away… even if bits are somewhat educational.  Eventually however, without using any cash items like Nabiki said he should, he beats the game, all without locking in any of the so-called Routes, which should have been impossible, but with his reflexes and combat knowledge, was merely insanely difficult.

Yet, the game is not all it’s cropped up to be.  It is instead the domain of a demon who feeds off the anger, rage, hatred and despair of those who play it. Beating the game breaks it, sending the demon back to hell.  Furious at this, the Demon uses all of it’s energy to send Ranma away, sending him into the dimension shown through the demon’s powers as the game. 

Coming to, in this new dimension, Ranma finds himself at the bottom of a dungeon, faced with the dungeon boss.  Needless to say, for the first time in days he has an enemy he can punch and is ecstatic about it, something the demon, were it there, would have been furious about.  Figuring that there’s probably no way back, Ranma, having had enough of life in Nerima, decides to go forward. 

Things this fic will contain beyond Luxion and other AIs having split loyalties…

1.      Ranma, the Super Adventurer.  Having no desire to become a noble or anything of that nature, Ranma takes to the life of adventuring with a certain amount of relish, forgetting for a moment that Holfort, where he’s wound up, is a nation which reveres such.  This lands him in eventual hot water as he’s raised to become a Baron.

a.      AI partner.  Ranma will find an AI of his own, one which isn’t from the original canon, but which suits him down to the ground.  Further, he will find a lot of other things in the dungeons.

b.      Dungeon delving.  Unlike in the above fic, here, Ranma would be just as interested in the actual makeup and construction of the dungeon, how they do what they do and so forth. In this manner he’ll start to manipulate them, gaining various interesting items, including one that will allow him to somewhat control his curse.

2.      Firestarter.  When an attempt by pirates to do away with him goes awry, Ranma goes hunting.  This leads him to Frampton, who in turn leas him to the Forest of Ladies.  Horrified at the idea of sending young children off to die in a war to get the compensation money Ranma will start to dismantle them with extreme prejudice.   

3.      Ranma, the SUPER RELUCTANT noble.  Ranma will have a lot of issues with the way Holfort is run, a lot of knowledge from the game, and frankly just a lot of trouble being told what to do by people he doesn’t respect, like or see as being in real positions of power over him.  It’s like dealing with the principal from Furinkan only dialed up to a thousand. 

a.      Punch the king.  Yep.  He’s gonna do it the moment he realizes how much of an ass the king is.

b.      Rough start, smooth finish.  Ranma and the queen will also bang heads at first, just because she is too much of a politician trying to maintain the status quo, but eventually they will get along pretty well, and Mylene will pseudo adopt Ranma.

4.      Fanoss frustrated.  Ranma will be turning over a lot of weapons and other things to the Holfort kingdom as part of how he will be paying his taxes.  This includes weapons capable of fighting Luxion on an even footing, and which can wipe out Fanoss’s military forces. Hertrude will not be pleased, but will also develop something of a fascination with Ranma, his curse and everything else. 

a.      Black Knight, a real threat – not so much because the ships Ranma finds won’t be able to deal with him, but because Ranma’s own pride won’t allow it.

5.      Confused and terrified Leon and Marie. Ranma is very much not a character from the game, and yet has just as much meta-information as they do, yet doesn’t care at all about it.  He goes his own way and fully believes he can fight through anything in his way.  This, needless to say, infuriates Marie because she IS in his way, and because Leon feels it’s remarkably naïve, but can’t really contradict Ranma’s way of dealing with problems

6.      Fivesome thrashing.  Unlike the above story, here, Ranma will be making a lot of waves without the backing of a powerful faction.  Moreover, he won’t be all that well-known by sight, with only Greg having heard about him since Julius didn’t care to learn more about a world of adventuring that he knew would never be his.  Instead…

a.      Jealous Julius – not only will he hate the fact Ranma, this upstart Baron, can do everything he wishes he could but he will come to resent how much time Marie spends thinking about ways to manipulate or take advantage of Ranma. He’s also going to be very conscious that Mylene likes him a bit, and that Ranma’s simply a far better fighter than he is. 

b.       In the last fic I had Greg and Chris be after Ranma’s female form.  Here, it will be Brad. Just him.  Jilk will be on Team Julius. He’ll hate Ranma on general principle for going against them, for being a better fighter and for flaunting what Jilk sees as holy writ.

c.       Chris redeemed – in this one, Ranma will give Chris the proper ass kicking he needs to really grow out of his mold. This in turn will mean Chris will move away from Marie and the rest of the pretty boys.

d.      Resentful Ranma – Ranma’s going to low-key hate the boys from the start, going out of his way to prank or annoy them in small ways even on the best of days. He remembers and hates how often he had to restart, go back and redo things in the game world because of the five of them.  Only Chris will change enough for that to not be an issue with him.

7.      Pairing would be Pure Angelica/Ranma.  Ranma would almost literally fall in love at first sight of her, on a dungeon dive paid for by her father.  He won’t make a move though, since Ranma knows about her relationship with Julius, but having played the game, he knows they’re destined to break up.  He will be there for her when she needs it. In turn, Angelica will be enamored of Ranma’s lifestyle as an adventurer, and come to greatly enjoy the fact he doesn’t mind bringing her along, and will even push her to be stronger. He would admire Angelica’s drive and she would admire his in turn.  Finally, when you pare away Angelica’s noble airs, her sense of humor an Ranma’s would be, strangely, a decent match for one another.

I could put in more, but for a thought exercise that I wanted to share with you all as a present, I think that’s about it.  I would be interested in taking your thoughts aboard over the next few days, as I’ll be with the family until next week, and thus will spend the time planning the various chapters in the January polls. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR folks!