Drunkard's Walk Forums

While looking at the Crossovers That Should Not Be thread, it occured to me that I've had ideas that maybe should be, and not all of them are Crossovers either. But, given my ability to write up any story has become increasingly rare as of late, the odds of me even managing a snippet or two are unlikely, so I figured I'd share them anyway. And if you've had ideas you haven't been able to write up, go ahead and share them here. You might get a chuckle, or give someone else an idea.

This one, I've had in my head for a long time. Basically, right at the beginning of the Clone Wars, right after the Battle of Genosios, Palpatine is caught in a legitimate accident. Drunk driver in an aircar, faulty elevator, a tragic incident involving Corellian Ale, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that the Supreme Chancellor is dead, in what only conspiracy nuts would claim is a Seperatist plot, and with no evidence he was a Sith. His authority is passed down to Bail Organa, who now has to win the war, but also follow through on the legacy of a man the majority of the galaxy believes was just and good. Dooku finds himself trapped on the side he'd always planned to betray, the Sith lose control of the Senate, and the Clone Wars go in a very different direction indeed....

... Dammit, I'm throwing money at the screen, but it just keeps bouncing off!
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

The best bit is, as a story idea, it won't negate everything that happens in the Clone Wars. Dooku is still in play, possibly even more desperate. The Senate is still filled with corruption, the Jedi Council is going to become increasingly militant, and monsters like Grevious are still amlost certain to show up. It's just that now, the good guys didn't lose before they even started fighting. They have a chance.

But as I said, I'm hopeless at getting anything written as of late, let alone something as big as this would end up being

How does a Sith Lord have a legitimate accident? I don't think it's possible. Be kinda like Superman being hit by a car, not gonna happen.

It might involve one of those Force-null critters that run around. Very rare, but they exist, and they can operate below Palpatine's radar. It'd have to be one hell of a cluster-f-bomb, though, and I would bet that there'd be summary executions involved afterwards for the sheer level of incompetence that led up to it.

My thinking was a lot more simple actually. While powerful, Palpatine isn't omnipotent, and doesn't pull every string in the Force. It's nothing but bad luck and horrible timing. The initial idea was of something like a drunk driver in an aircar, when Palpatine's being covertly transported back from a meeting as 'Sidious'. The other driver slipped out of the registered flight lanes, and while Palpatine might sense the threat, he's stuck in the back seats of his air limo, and doesn't even have time to warn his driver. A disaster that would shake the galaxy, but the sort of thing that comes out of nowhere, even to those with a near perfect ability to see the future.

In that kind of circumstance, he could probably kick out the door and jump to safety, but only at the cost of revealing that he's an active force user. A shuttle crash could be big enough that he couldn't escape, though.

Hell, if you're gonna go that route, a single space rock in the wrong place at the wrong time will suffice.

A couple of times now, various people (Me, Valles, at least one or two more) have mentioned ideas for some variation on "humans only get offplanet just after the Mass Effect Reapers sweep through" - well, here's another. In this version, events progress largely like the game, but either follow the "screw you, fanboys" DLC bad end or the giant microphone McGuffin I can't remember the name of doesn't work/isn't completed in time/doesn't exist, and there's a general wipe on spacefaring civilizations ... except for the 10,000 humans sent forward from the 1980s by the Montauk Project.

The what? Well, here's a condensed version that covers it and provides Hero 6th Ed. versions of the effects of The Philedelphia Experiment, Phoenix, Minotaur, and Montauk:

http://surbrook.devermore.net/herosourc ... roject.pdf

Yes, it's part of that bunch of wacko nonsense, but what better end to put modern fantasy to than the backstory for futuristic fantasy?

From there, you've got your standard castaways/ruin explorers/rebuilding civilization type story, but with the entire galaxy as the stage.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

Here's one that kinda hit me out of the blue this morning - an A:tLA bunny

Being a cartoon the show was wonderfully broad in explaining the links between the elements/people/nations and how they interact both on a physical and spiritual level - but there did seem to be some level of cause and effect between how the elements act in real life and how the people/nations behaved. So Fire was hot tempered, Water was flexible but cold in anger, Air was flighty, earth was stubborn etc. In other words more or less the classical elements.

Here's the Bunny: Fire NEEDS Air to exist - except under very specialist conditions. It can destroy Air, if there is enough of it in one place in extreme conditions, but afterwards suffocates due to lack of oxygen, unless it can pull more in.

So, if the people's spiritual and mental well being is linked to their element, it explains why the Fire Nation as a whole (and especially it's ruling family - who are the Nation personified) are more than a little unhinged. Without enough Air around they are dying...

It also explains why, despite their being the ones to destroy Air initially, the Fire Nation has the most evidence of Air based refugees within it's borders, what with certain grey eyed acrobats and YanYu archers and what not...

There'd be a story in that being worked out by someone high up in the Fire Nation and realising they'd destroyed themselves unless they can bring Air back...

I like this. In fact, I've been kinda tempted to do a story where an airbender is born in the Fire Nation at around the same time Zuko is, and the two meet early on and become good childhood friends... Good enough that in a display of civil disobedience, he goes with Zuko on his banishment. Hmmmmm....

So, the dean thought, the girl had a point. She already knew everything that their classes could teach. It would be pointless to make her attend classes like a normal student.

And that's how Evangeline A. K. McDowell was introduced to class 3-A... as their new homeroom teacher.

-Morgan.

... Okay, that's just an awesome idea.

Agreed, but then Negi wouldn't wind up as their homeroom teacher. :p

Well, that's where it gets complicated, doesn't it? I'm not sure how long the class is supposed to have been together, but this has her becoming a teacher well before Negi arrives - she's essentially taking Takamichi's place, not Negi's. (Although Takamichi can be presumed to be still around.)

Once Negi arrives, who knows? Maybe he'll be put in the class as a student instead this time around. (Since it's never AFAIK clear what the point of sending him to be a teacher was in the first place.)

-Morgan.

AFAIK? He was supposed to learn how to blend in with the mundanes.

Unnnnnnn~fortunately! That didn't go according to plan!

I'm of the opinion the whole school assignment was a set-up. It was no coincidence he ended up the teacher for a class that was already far beyond the mundane, and the presence of and his father's old nemesis in their number just nailed it. He was there to kickstart something, although whatever that was got quickly thrown to the curb when the events of the actual plot started rolling.
Edit:  Fixed error caused by muscle memory, although it's probably pointless now.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Your spoilers are showing.

Yeah, it being a coincidence really doesn't seem credible. Which is why I could see them sticking Negi in as a student at that point (even if he doesn't really need that part of it any more than Evangeline does). Since if Negi replaced Evangeline as the teacher the way he replaces Takamichi in canon, it would break the group up. And we can't have that.

-Morgan.

Scary epileptic tree/realizationDefinitely a setup.  Just not a particular /person's/ setup.  He got the direction to go there from a Magical diploma that sends you 'where you need to be'. Basically? Negi was sent to be the teacher of that class by /magic itself/.
It put him where it needed him to be. To save a huge part of itself.