Ether Morph (Story in progress)

[Spokavriel]

Unless Genma were a willing participant ((I know evil disgusting thought)) to gain the knowledge in martial arts to make his life otherwise easier.

[KonokoHasano]

Ah, thanks, I'll have to change the 'ESP' to telekinesis.


I really do need to think about that angle, because in all likelihood, Happosai would realize that Genma wasn't human, and the very idea of Rakshasa Genma willingly changing into feminine form just to convince Happosai to get training...


The idea is kind of amusing, honestly XD

[Spokavriel]

Maybe a twist could be added in. Because of Genma's nature consuming energies perhaps they could somehow handle some things symbiotically? Happy needs energy from females while Genma can subsist on anyones energies. So they trade off some excess they can't personally use but Genma keeps Male in appearance when training and doesn't change in front of Soun. When Happy is with Fem Genma it's just an odd woman that The Master hangs out with from time to time.

[Cheb]

Who said your Happousai should be a human?
He could be a wererat, a djinni, a dragon... and many other nasty things able to enslave/dominate a poor rakshasa.

[KonokoHasano]

That actually sounds plausible. I don't know why I keep thinking small. >.<

[Spokavriel]

Given Happosai's need for panties why not make him an Incubus under a seal to prevent him from getting energy in the classic sexual acts?

[KonokoHasano]

It might even be possible that Happosai could be undead, and needs to collect energy from the living to stay alive... with him being kicked out of the realm of the undead.


And now for another snippet...


Ranma gave off a large yawn and a stretch. It was a cool and comfortable night, and he was currently sitting on his sleeping bag at the camp site that both he and his father used. The sky was almost completely clear, and this allowed a multitude of stars to line the night sky. The three-year-old was always fascinated by the stars, and found them to be absolutely beautiful.

For a Rakshasa, physical training -- while providing some benefits and increase in physical abilities -- wasn’t the best kind of training to focus on. Their normal bodies weren’t really made for it, and so that’s why they had to rely on transforming if they wanted to depend on physical attacks.

That was why most of his father’s martial arts training consisted of teaching him techniques that could be applied to a stronger, much more capable form, how to take advantage of certain weaknesses, and spotting openings and holes in a person’s defense. It didn’t matter if it was fair or unfair, just as long as you were able to defeat your opponent.

There was some physical training, but just enough to give the young Rakshasa some exercise. The rest of the time was spent helping Ranma with his own abilities. Attempting to help him get in better tune with his senses, to work a little more on trying to control his random morphing -- now his hair was pink and spiky with bright green streaks, -- and work on his psionic powers in an effort to get the child to at least levitate to a few centimeters above the ground. The first and third tasks were accomplished, but the second was still a hurdle that needed to be overcome.

The sound of snoring broke Ranma out of his thoughts and made him turn his head. His father was currently in neuter form and lying on his back. The sleeping bag he was lying in wasn’t fully zipped up, and he was basically sprawled about as he scratched his exposed stomach and allowed a small bit of drool to appear at the corner of his mouth. The occasional mumbling could be heard, and as he listened closely, Ranma could make out such words as ‘yakitori’, ‘beef and rice’, and… something called caille en sarcophagi. The three-year-old had absolutely no idea what the last thing was, even though he did somehow know what it meant.

The young child’s head suddenly perked up at feeling a rather large amount of ethereal energy that somehow appeared out of virtually nowhere. Staring back at Genma, Ranma noted that his father merely gave a twitch before rolling over onto his side. Curiosity getting the better of him, Ranma pushed himself to his feet and made his way towards the large source of energy.

A he came closer and closer, it felt as if the intensity of the source grew by the second. Despite having wandered away from the safety of the camp site, the three-year-old felt no fear, like he normally would have in any other circumstance. He was more interested in sating both his senses and childish desire to know. It was almost as if he were a moth to a flame, moving blindly in the direction of whatever was attracting him.

“Hurry up, Benji!” A voice called out in annoyance. “We need to get back to our time so that I can report my findings regarding the nature of Chronoverse.” Even though it sounded as if the language being spoken was foreign, the young Rakshasa was able to understand it almost perfectly.

Poking his head out from around a tree, Ranma was amazed to see some kind of strange jet plane that appeared as something he had never saw before. Sure, he had seen images of the things before, but they never looked anything like this. However, what really caught his attention was the black Labrador that was sitting right next to the strange-looking flying machine.

“Puppy!” Ranma shouted as he rushed over to the dog and gave it a hug around the neck.

Needless-to-say, the dog wasn’t pleased to be randomly hugged by some strange child. “Will you get off of me, you dirty human?!” It growled before pushing the boy away. “I am no ‘puppy’. I am Dr. Alfred Peachbody, and--” The dog stopped in his rant when he noticed the child in front of him. The boy -- or girl… he wasn’t sure -- had long, pointy ears similar to an elf’s, while his hair was half pink-half brown. Strangely, the child’s skin was completely snow white. ‘This child can’t be human.’

“Talking puppy?” Ranma asked with a tilt of his head.

“Sir, is there anything wrong?” The new voice caused the child to turn his head to see an older boy of around nine-years-old stepping out of the bushes. He had a slight muscular build about him, and there was a collar situated around his neck. “You sounded angry, and-- Hey, who’s that?” The boy asked as he walked up to the younger child and crouched down. “Hiya, I’m Benji!” He greeted with a smile.

Ranma tilted his head as he stared up at the older boy. This was the source of the immense amount of ethereal energy. For some reason, he was chock full of the stuff to a point where it seemed to swarm around him in waves. “I’m Ranma.” The young Rakshasa answered back with his own smile. “Gonna be a mashial artist!” He shouted as his hair suddenly changed orange, causing Peachbody’s eyes to widen.

‘Well there’s something you don’t see every day?’ The dog thought to himself as he tried to analyze the situation.

“Really?” Benji asked. “I’m one of those as well. I fight to protect Mr. Peachbody.” He couldn’t help but tilt his head. “But why did your hair just change? And why is your skin so white?”

“Oh,” The three-year-old said with a childish giggle, “I’m a Rakshasa. Papa’s tryin’ to teach me control. It’s very hard though.” Maybe he could make friends with the older boy.

The claim of what he was caused Peachbody’s ears to perk up. ‘A Rakshasa!’ While he never had the chance to come across one, the super-intelligent canine knew full well that the obscenely rare creature possessed powerful psionic abilities while being able to shape-shift into an uncountable number of different forms. With something like that by his side, he would have a magnificent tool for spying and information gathering. A little young, yes, but the child could definitely be trained.

As Peachbody watched the two children, he could see that they seemed to get along perfectly. Benji always did like to try and befriend other people, and if his understanding was correct, the young Rakshasa was likely being overly friendly because of the immense amount of chi Benji possessed. This meant that the child would be easy pickings.

“Sir, sir!” Benji shouted as he ran up to Peachbody with the object of the dog’s interest in tow. “Can he come with us? Please? I’ve never really had a friend before, and I’ll be really nice to him. So can I? Huh, can I?”

“Down boy!” The black lab commanded as he placed a paw on the boy’s head. “I’ll see what I can do, but if I say we can’t, then we can’t. Do you understand?” He received a vigorous nod from his attack boy. “Now, child,” Peachbody began with a smirk as he turned his attention towards the three-year-old. “You said that you were a martial artist, right? And that your ‘Papa’ is training you?”

“Uh-huh!” Ranma answered with a nod.

“I could take you to a place where you can learn how to become a great martial artist, and you could also learn how to fully use all of your amazing Rakshasa abilities.” Peachbody gave the child a kind look. Internally, however, he was producing a smile most sinister.

“Really?” Ranma asked before turning his head towards the direction of camp. “What about papa?”

“Oh, I’m sure that your ‘papa’ would be proud to know that you have found a way to become stronger.” The dog gave the child a questioning look. “You DO want him to be proud of you, do you not? You want him to see you as strong and capable of taking care of yourself?”

The young Rakshasa nodded his head vigorously. He really did want to make his father proud of him. “Uh-huh, uh-huh! I do!”

“Then you should come with us, Ranma.” The dog said, using the name that he remembered the child use when he greeted Benji. “Of course, you could always just go back to him. I’m sure that he would be disappointed that you didn’t agree to an offer that would help you. If you want him to be disappointed, then--”

“No!” Ranma shouted as his hair shifted to blond. “No want papa to be dis’po’nted. I’ll go with you.”

“Excellent choice, child.” Peachbody said with a smile. “Oh, and Benji, we can take him with us. Now let’s get in the ship and go home.” They had a lot of planning and preparation to do before he would be able to go about his plan in crafting a world where HE was top dog.

“Oh boy!” Benji shouted as he grabbed hold of the young Rakshasa and climbed up into the jet. “We’re going to be great friends, Ranma! You can even learn Doggy Style Martial Arts along with me!”

“Doggy Style Mashial Arts?” Ranma asked before he grew a little fur and morphed into a puppy-boy.

“That’s amazing!” Benji called out.

‘Must not have very good control of his transformation powers yet.’ Peachbody thought with a frown as he started up the engine. He’d definitely have to teach the child that he should not be transforming himself into a dog.

As the jet lifted up into the air, Ranma found his nose pressed to the window as he looked on in awe. He had never seen anything from such a height, and so it was incredibly awe-inspiring. He watched as they rose higher and higher before shooting up and through some kind of strange bubble that appeared amongst the night sky. Almost instantly, the jet flew through the bubble and exited the very time frame that the passengers were just in.

Back at camp, Genma’s eyes snapped open as he sat up straight. “Ranma?” For some reason, he lost the psionic connection that allowed him to both feel his son’s presence, and pinpoint a general location or direction that the child was in. Searching around camp, he couldn’t find his offspring anywhere, but he could sense a large amount of lingering ethereal energy, and so he followed the direction until he came to a halt at the spot both his son and the two time travelers were at.

‘What the hell happened?!’ Genma thought to himself frantically. Something was interfering with his ability to sense his son; he didn’t even know where he was, or HOW he was. Ranma was still alive -- he could feel that, -- but that was all he knew. It was like the three-year-old completely disappeared off of the face of the earth.

Punching the tree next to him out of anger and frustration, the Rakshasa fell to his knees and gripped the grass with his other hand. How could he be so careless and allow his son to go missing? What kind of parent was he to allow his only child to possibly get himself into such danger?

‘Don’t worry, boy.’ He thought with a growl. ‘I’ll find you no matter how long it takes.’

[Spokavriel]

Too young. This Ranma hasn't been living a life to really become anything like cannon Ranma and well being taken from Genma this soon I see a future full of OC's with familiar names. None of the training trip encounters have even happened yet. So you are going to have a AU world that has no reason for anything aside from the Kunos and the Tendos to have anything even close to resembling cannon in any aspect. Oh and Nodoka but there's no Sepuku contract.

[KonokoHasano]

So you are going to have a AU world that has no reason for anything aside from the Kunos and the Tendos to have anything even close to resembling cannon in any aspect. Oh and Nodoka but there's no Sepuku contract.

Say what? o,O;;

[Spokavriel]

Allot of things happen on Ranma's training trip that contributes to how things are in Nerima in the main story. Having Ranma end up taken from Genma this early makes it so that I can't see any way for you to have any of those elements.

Having him as non-human and the training being allot different already made it hard to see any of those but now it looks impossible to really have any reason to. It also makes it hard to imagine this Ranma being even half way as close to cannon ranma as Raltz Ranma is.

That's why I think it's just too soon for Ranma to be away from Genma.

[KonokoHasano]

Why try to stick close to canon at all? Why not try and go about doing something different than attempting to do the same old thing in a different way? There's only so many ways you can read or do something a certain way before it becomes uninteresting.

One should not be limited to sticking close to canon. Fanfiction is about crafting a story, and if canon can basically be reformed into something else while making a good story, then why not? Not every story has to adhere to the entirety of canon. If certain things happen that cause it so that a character never meets a certain one, then that's okay.

[Questara]

I can go either way on the issue, but the primary problem is, with taking Ranma away so early, and making so many changes so early, you almost might as well not be using Ranma at all, but just some character with his name, and names that overlap with Ranma's series...

I do like the stories either way, but its just an issue to keep an eye on.

[KonokoHasano]

I think that this story is going to go on a hiatus. The direction that I was going for has been lost, and I can't figure out just where to go with it anymore.

[Spokavriel]

I'm sorry. It has a fun start. It's just that with how soon Ranma is taken from Genma why would there need to be any Rakshasa named Ranma in your gold digger story? Or rather why would the Ranma Rakshasa have to have any connection to Genma or Nodoka?

[KonokoHasano]

Eh, I don't know. The only other way I can even think of this story is to go with the normal way of making it skip to the beginning of canon, and then screw with canon right then and there by having a Ranma that can transform into just about anything, has psionic abilities, is rather flirty, and....

Hmm...