Si Grabbag Plan!

[Ryu Gabriev]

Here's a thought for anyone wanting to try an Self Insert, since they seem to be on the rise again. Keep in mind, Enigmatic Magus on FF.net gets the bigger credit for this idea since I got it from him. In one of his tales a trio of three random characters wind up on his doorstep and proceed to turn his life upside down. While in my opinion, it devolved into Gary Stu around the 5th continuation or so, the original premise is still good enough for general use.

Take your life and existance, add a character from 3 different shows, games, manga, etc. and tell us what might happen to you.

Here's an early concept team that I came up with for an example.

Happosai
Yuugi Moto (with Millenium Puzzle o 'course)
Lelouch Lamperuge

Sound good to anyone?

[Lord Aries Greymon]

Wow, I really need to check the Non-Spamville parts of the forum more often.

Anyway, that actually sounds like a reverse Triple SI, since the definition of SI that I've allways heard was, at it's heart "Insert Thyself into the story, and let the story run free."

And with that clear, it does sound like a grand idea, though I only barely know Happosai, and while I know Yuugi's Anime self decently, I've only really heard of that Prick Lelouch.

So, personally, I say run it. The worst that'll happen is a few read it and dislike it (largely by your personal life being the astoundingly boring crap that most of us hate to tears allready, since it's likely far too similar to our own lives) and the best is that many people read and like it.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

I got caught up in a challenge-fic contest once. Did well enough with Ranma, Ryo-ohki, and Ba-chan from Strawberry Eggs. (There were three challenges. I picked the easy one, but tossed in some elements of the other two.)

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The Easy Challenge:

A few weeks before your team shows up, news reports start coming out of a remote part of the world about a person who can work miracles (heal the lame and infirm, feed multitudes, make U.S. beer drinkable, etc.). This person has started to attract a small-but-fierce group of worshippers who would do anything to protect him.

The day after your team arrives, this miracle-worker turns up on your doorstep, asking you to hide him. He never claimed to be a god, and just wants to be left alone. However, the lead item on the evening news is an interview with the cult's leader, where he swears "vengeance and death upon the infidels who have stolen our messiah away from us", and announces that the cult has managed to get their hands on some Soviet-era weapons - he doesn't say whether that's a crate of AK-47s or a nuke.

The mission is to get all three members of your team to agree on a single course of action to deal with the situation, and quickly – you don't want the fanatics to start a shooting-war.

Good luck to you, brave soldiers.

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I'd like to try Team Versatility for the easy challenge, please:

Saotome Ranma, from a period where he's relatively comfortable with his curse and quite capable of using kawaii when necessary.

Ryo-Oh-Ki from near the end of the first Tenchi OVA.

Ba-chan from I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, with her motorcycle mecha.

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Team Versatility is staying at my place – we have a daybed for Ba-chan, Ranma is used to sleeping on the floor, Ryo-oh-ki can probably find a few good places to hang out. Ba-chan, having heard of Ranma’s problem with cats, has outfitted Ryo-oh-ki with a decorative voice-modulator collar so she sounds like a squirrel or whatever – anything but a cat. That, with the long ears and puffball tail, should keep Ranma safe from even the fringes of the Neko-ken. Since we once were SCA, we can handle strange visitors from another reality crashing about the house.

Miracle-workers are another matter, but after he convinces us he’s not a Jehovah’s Witness, we let him in. His name, for the sake of convenience, is Q.

Ba-chan takes charge after hearing Q’s story. While her past is a mystery, it seems likely she was some kind of secret agent, who still dabbles in such matters as entertainment in her retirement. This kind of situation is something she’s used to.

With a miracle-worker on tap, there’s no problem enlisting Ranma and Ryo-oh-ki. The cabbit is seduced by enough carrots to feed the multitudes, while Ranma is willing to go along after being told that in the future, he will miraculously be able to eat and enjoy Akane’s cooking. (We won’t touch the major plot element of the curse.)

Combining newspaper, television and internet data with ground-truth from the miracle worker, Ba-chan knows the likely locations of both cult and weapons. Ryo-oh-ki, in spaceship form, can use her sensors to pin things down precisely. (Ranma, Ba-chan and Q are aboard.)

Ryo-oh-ki beams Ranma-kun into the camp of the cult, and Q does a minor miracle to convince the cultists that not only has Ranma been there all along, he is one of the boldest and strongest of believers among them – a true Man among Men.

Ryo-oh-ki then sets Q and Ba-chan down unobtrusively outside of camp, and transforms back to a cabbit. Q gives Ba-chan a set of formal robes befitting an ancient and noble Elder. They go into the camp of the cult, with Ryo-oh-ki sitting on Ba-chan’s shoulder. Q proclaims he is back with important news, and calls the cult members together for a great feast.

The great feast is held. Multitudes are fed, and American beer flows freely to the delight of all. At the climax of the feast, Q stands up to speak; and miraculously, all are able to hear and see him well. Ba-chan is at his side, with a kawaii cabbit on her shoulder. Ranma-kun is in the midst of the crowd, piles of used dishes before him; his neighbors stare at him in awe of the heroic eating they have seen.

“I have been away from you,” he begins, “conferring with the Elder Lulu of the distant planet Joketsuzoku. They have a great famine there, and pestilence as well. Their stores of unobtanium are depleted, and terrible threads fall from the skies. Earth, with all its problems, is a Paradise next to their plight. I must go to save them.

“But I cannot forget the time I have spent in your glorious company, and so I would take one of you with me to be my companion in this mission. Saotome Ranma, come forth!”

Ranma arrives at the head table, and stands proudly with Q and Ba-chan.

“Carry out my mission as best you can,” Q continues. “Feed the poor, and comfort the sick; and try to convince American brewers to do a better job. And now,” (he holds a large glass of cold beer aloft; it transforms into the purest and clearest of sparkling waters) “I shall perform my last miracle among you. Saotome Ranma, you shall be my closest of companions.” (He pours water over Ranma.) “You shall be my most favored concubine.”

Ranma-chan moulds herself against Q’s side, and gives the cult a kawaii flutter of the eyelashes. Ba-chan throws Ryo-oh-ki into the air, where she changes to her spaceship form. She beams Q, Ranma, and Ba-chan aboard and leaves, heading straight up. The cultists stare at the place where Q and Ranma had been, then at one another. As one, the men place their hands in such a way as to protect their manhoods.

Once out of sight, Ryo-oh-ki heads in a leisurely manner towards my place. During the trip, Ba-chan advises Q to go to the Mayo Clinic (where some miracles are expected, and there’s a team used to dealing with them) and confine his endeavours to healing the sick.

As they land, Ba-chan notices her motorcycle is gone. In the distance we hear a scream of surprise as a motorcycle thief pushes the wrong button and it turns into a mecha, followd by metallic crashings as he proves he doesn’t know how to drive a mecha. Ba-chan departs in that direction in a great rush, waving her revolver, while Ranma-chan holds the back of her head with one hand and Ryo-oh-ki mews enticingly at Q, hoping for more carrots. (During all those transformations, the voice modulator has been lost.)

“C .. c … c … CAT!” Ranma-chan shrieks as she hears the “mew”, and runs wildly into the distance. Q creates carrots. Ryo-oh-ki eats carrots. I go inside, and catch up on my reading. The world saved, things return to normal.

[Ryu Gabriev]

Actually that first group was for an example, though I already had something of an interesting outline planned for them.

But if I had it to do over again, I'd go with:

Washu (Tenchi OVA version)
Edward Elric
Yohko Mano

Washu's first to arrive, who quickly pulls more of her Nth-dimensional shenanigans and makes herself at home while trying to discover how she got pulled to my world in the first place. A day after that Edward shows up in similar fashion, is quickly kidnapped by Washu for guinea pig duty (As am I thanks to her goofy duplication technology, she made a second me to do all the stuff that would otherwise pull me away from her for a few hours...joy.), and finally a day after that Yohko(in early 20s for propriety's sake) appears, with a whole batch of demons following her in!

Laugh as I'm subjected to perverse Hijinks by the Greatest Scientific Mind in the Universe!

Wince as Ed blows up my old car!

Cheer as I get to see Yohko's transformation up close!

What do ya think?

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

The only thing that could improve a good Washuu story is the inclusion of daleks as comic relief. Though if Yohko is there too, you could always toss in A-ko and B-ko. After all, your team could use a worthy set of adversaries!

[Ryu Gabriev]

Yohko is from Devil hunter Yohko.

A-ko is a whole different set all together.

But knowing Washu, she'll find the Doctor Who things I know about and through that pull a few Dalek shenanigans to freak me out.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

Yohko is from Devil hunter Yohko.

A-ko is a whole different set all together.

They both have the tendency to show off more than they intend.

[Ryu Gabriev]

They both have the tendency to show off more than they intend.

True...

But the rules of the idea are you only get those three you start with in your world. You can go to their worlds eventually if the mechanism exists or can be created. So even if I wanted to see power armored bikini babes (and who doesn't?) it can't be done under the rules. Very sad.

[Ryu Gabriev]

Ok, looking back on the story there's an optional rule you may use if it suits you.

To allow for the existence of new people in our world where once there weren't any, after a set period of time causality rewrites itself, integrating the new arrivals so that they always seemed to exist there. What form the changes take can be influenced by events and relationships at the time of the alteration.

Bonus Points if you can make a rather clever situation occur through it.

[Ryu Gabriev]

I offer this new SI Idea:

Shinji in original Evangelion helped bring about the end of the world, and then promptly let it stay in ruin because he felt that everyone had screwed him over one time too many. In the New Eva Movies, Gendo actually gives off father vibes at certain points, and Shinji goes full badass at the end of the second film. This is what the ROB has seen, and so, for curiosity's sake begins a little fun 'what if' scenario.

Shinji has been haunted for the past 3 years before coming to Tokyo-3. Not by a malicious entity, but by the Spirit of the SI character, who has helped the kid on numerous occasions by being his spiritual stand-in for much of the crap life had to offer the young Ikari. For a short period of time Shinji can let the SI possess him and the SI then has full control of the body and no restraint on how they are to use it, Shinji doesn't really care. It can be done as often as either of them like, but BE WARNED: The more you use it, the faster the transition becomes permanent and Shinji Ikari ceases to be. It's up to YOU to help this kid man up and save the world like he was supposed to!

SI has no other powers other than the Body-switch trick, if Shinji dies, so do you. The transition will show signs of becoming permanent as it'll become harder and harder for the SI to disengage from Shinji's body as time goes on.

HARD MODE: SI cannot use Canon information to assist in the Testosterone Infusion.

What d'ya think?