Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
Winterblight - alternate Gibsonverse, where Neuromancer was destroyed by the Turing Police to prevent Wintermute from merging with it. Denied the other half of its intended self and with the T-cops bearing down on its own CPU, the remaining AI enacts a back up plan, migrating its kernal processes to a distributed model, virally installed in the wetware of human matrix-divers, who become known colloquially as Ghouls after the fictional thralls of Dracula.
Orbital Transfer Student
Underhill and Overdale
Bubblegum and Champagne
--
"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
Quote:ClassicDrogn wrote:
Bubblegum and Champagne
Bubblegum Crisis reimagined with every single Saber a member of high society. Yes, even retro trash punk rocker Priss.
It does a pretty good job of handling cyberpunk from a different direction though, with less 'the small people fighting a hopeless fight against the Man' and more 'a few good women of means trying to protect the weak and innocent from the corrupt and powerful.' It's still a vastly dystopian setting, which shows most clearly in the emptiness of the lives of the rich and powerful, with the Sabers unable to make much of a difference except as their mercenary alter egos, and even then it's not much.
Mind, it's a very different story than what Bubblegum Crisis told even if the setting is the same. That's kind of what happens when you transform the situation the main characters are in so much, even if their base personalities are and remain the same.
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
... that actually sounds like a bitchin' Cybergeneration campaign, though the Sabers would either need to be deaged a bit or be the 'dults trying to shepard a bunch of Carbon Plagued juves to safety, and keep them that way.
--
"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
Posts: 25,483
Threads: 2,060
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
12
Sirrocco Wrote:Fond Regards from Antarctica: Pretty much Exactly What It Says On The Tin - a series of letters written by a (fictional) soldier posted to the McMurdo security detail over winter, sent to his wife and kids back home.
But it isn't until he's sent on a rescue mission into the mountains that we discover it's a Lovecraft-Mythos story...
ClassicDrogn Wrote:Orbital Transfer Student
This one's a Drunkard's Walk steplet, where Doug ends up enrolling as a mature student at Stellvia academy.
The Origin of Specious ...?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 25,483
Threads: 2,060
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
12
No ideas? Ah, well... How about I riff off of this concept instead:
The Tragedy of the Uncommons
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
I couldn't come up with anything for The Origin of Specious that didn't properly belong in Politics & Other Fun. Tragedy of the Uncommons, though, is a Discworld mystery novel, investigating the unusually nonmagical strange events one late evening in the newly-dedicated Ridcully Uncommons at the Unseen University.
Hmm...
Try By Day, By Knight
--
"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
Posts: 28
Threads: 6
Joined: Aug 2012
Reputation:
0
"By Day, By Knight" would probably be a series of one-shots about Batman's excursions during daylight hours. "The Origin of Specious" would be a one-shot about some Harry Potter wizards coming up with a theory of Evolution that gets things very very wrong.
My next items for this: "Necessary Weasel" and "Massive Attack".
Thanks
Luc "Pun Goes Here" French
Posts: 25,483
Threads: 2,060
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
12
Necessary Weasel is the current arc in Girl Genius.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
Uh huh. And Massive Attack is that Mass Effect fic various people keep proposing here, where the Reaper invasion sweeps through JUUUUUST before Humans discover the Mars archive and the Charon Relay, emerging into a galaxy of still-smoking ruins and fragments all over hinting at what caused them. After the initial war with the Yahrg, in a similar position, in which the main characters get trained up, it follows the voyage of an elite unit assigned to uncover just what happened to depopulate the spacefaring races like that, discovering a few well-hidden time capsules along the way like stasis pods containing members of the the leading races from the last two cycles, then a time skip to mostly next-gen fic (barring a few long-lived aliens for continuity purposes) where Humanity and the races they've found to ally with have built up their non-ME fighting capability and send a strike force in to Dark Space to deal with the problem before it comes back around to bite their descendents in another 50,000 years. Cue Lensmen-level over the top space battle.
If we're adapting band names and songs now, how about First We Take Manhattan?
Or to stay more original, As the Years Fall Away
--
"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
Posts: 28
Threads: 6
Joined: Aug 2012
Reputation:
0
"First We Take Manhattan" is a fic in which some alien invaders start with said Borough. Gargoyles/Ghostbusters/Castle/Blue Bloods crossover.
I'll give a few more, just because one inspired the next:
- Murder Don't Buy Happiness
- For The Love Of Murder
- On A Less Murder/Money Punning Note...
- Metal Gear Potter
Thanks
Luc "Weird Ideas" French
First We Take Manhattan is a WW3 speculative fiction detailing the Warsaw pact ploy to, well, first take Manhattan before they take (West-)Berlin. It gets very quickly nasty as the commies use preplanted agents and weapons stashes to basically assault and burn down Manhattan in a massive orgy of fire. About the only thing they don't use but is theoretically available and man portable is a pocket nuke.
It's basically a well organised state sponsored act of terrorism that is used as a smokescreen. The follow up book makes it clear it worked and slowed down the American response to the Warsaw Pact assault on Western Europe, but I haven't yet read Bavarian Beerhall nor The Danish Option nor The White Death.
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
For the Love of Murder is a somehow sweet but very very disturbing Buffyverse period piece about how fledgling vampire William the Bloody (full stop, no more cracks about his poetry) came to actually love his sire Drusilla the Mad, for whatever value of love a literally bloodthirsty demon can feel.
I've been on a steampunk kick lately, so how about Like Clockwork, The Great Machines, or A Girl in Goggles?
--
I love a girl in goggles/it's goggles what does it for me/so keep your girly girly girls/I like a woman who loves gettin' dirty/a girl who can strip an engine/glistening with sweat and oil/I love a girl in goggles/in goggles/in goggles! - chorus of _Goggles_, by The Men Who Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing
--
"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
Like Clockwork is the story of a young spark who has difficulty fitting in with her family and peers because she's only moderately fond of clockwork, while they're completely obsessive (her obsessions lie elsewhere). Over the course of the story, she winds up becoming friends with Goggles, a primarily clockwork (and fully sentient) mech of about 12 feet tall that is now largely ignored by her family for being a little too out of date. They bond over various things and it's really quite heartwarming, and valuable life lessons are learned. Sadly, it does indeed have a Newbury Prize moment, where Goggles sacrifices himself to save her from something dreadful. Happily, she's still a spark, and puts him back together again afterwards.
The Great Machines is a years-later continuation fanfic of the above where Terrible Things are happened to the girl's family/city/everything. Goggles manages to smuggler her out of the city in his extra-large chassis, and they set off to beg assistance from The Great Machines - a council of powerful AI, halfway across the continent. At least, that's how it starts. 50 chapters later...
A Girl In Goggles is a somewhat cracky and more humor-oriented set of side chapters to the fanfic, written by the author, centered around a steamy relationship that develops between the two (courtesy of his boiler). It's primarily lime, but chapters 5 and 8 have full-on lemon scenes. Much is made of the vibrations given off by a properly-tuned engine. The main fic has a few references that can be seen as shout-outs by those who've read both, but never openly acknowledges anything, and makes sense read either way.
and, for mine... Call Not Up What Thou Canst Not Put Down
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
I know there's a bibliophile joke in that one somewhere, but it's just not coming out.
--
"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
Posts: 1,452
Threads: 58
Joined: Apr 2006
Reputation:
0
Quote:ClassicDrogn wrote:
I know there's a bibliophile joke in that one somewhere, but it's just not coming out.
...Yomiko Readman discovers the joys of a phone-order book delivery service?
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Posts: 27,539
Threads: 2,267
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Heh. Stolen, but... Do Not Call Up What Thou Canst Not Put On Hold.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Quote:Sirrocco wrote:
and, for mine... Call Not Up What Thou Canst Not Put Down
It's an anthology masquerading as an educational book describing a dozen 'Summoner's Rules' and gives an example of what happens if you break one of them.
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
I'd like to read that, actually.
So, time for a new challenge! Multiple choice again:
All the Shades of the Sun
Velvet, Diamond, Sky
The Wind, Like Glass
ETA: Orange Peel & Melon Rind
--
"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
All the Shades of the Sun: Set in a fairly generic fantasy world, it tells yet another in the occasional apocalypses that threaten to overrun the place. Undead are nothing new. Incorporeal undead are a bit unusual, but not without precedent. Undead that attack only during the day, leaving the night time as the time when it is safe to stir outside one's home? That's just bizarre.
Velvet, Diamond, Sky: a short crossover fic with little point other than to introduce three characters from three different sci-fi universes (alt-versed into musicians with stage names that refer to their nature in their original verses), watch them bounce off one another in conversation for a bit, and play a set together.
The Wind, Like Glass: Another science fiction story - this one a bit of a throwback to the sort of "man vs potentially lethal environment with heavy dose of philosophy" that you used to see more of decades ago, set in a land station on a world where the wind is so fast that microparticulates will scour away almost (with an exception for the handwavium that the visiting ships and the station itself are made of). The wind/glass simile threads throughout the short story, from the bit at the beginning, where it's useful when used properly, but can easily cut you if you are too careless, to the bit at the end, where the solution to the problem centers around the fact that while it's a barrier to physical things, it can be seen through fairly readily, and light can be projected out as well (in the form of a jobbed-together laser)
Orange Peel & Melon Rind: A bizarre and poorly explained story about the eponymous pair of magically empowered paranormal investigators. The individual stories and arcs make sense some of the time, but everyone is named after fruit parts (except for a few of the creepier badguys, who are named after animal parts), the overall plot is largely inexplicable, and the whole thing has a seriously Gainax ending. It seems like it might be trying to push an activist vegan agenda, but it's hard to be sure.
And, for mine...
Blood, and Fire, and Lemonade
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
Yeah, Chicken Cutlet freaked me right out too. As for yous, isn't that the one about the abiguously gay forest fire fighters who are secretly vampires? I gave it a miss figuring it was just cashing in on the Twilight yaoi fangirl market, but I've heard it's actually a surprisingly funny deconstruction of the genre.
Hmm...
Hmmm...
Nothin' but a Squirt Gun and a Magic 8-Ball
How Fares the Watch?
Under Cupboard Lubber
--
"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
Oh yeah. My wife actually really enjoyed that one. As far as she's concerned, she can take or leave the deconstructionist elements - fanservice that's laughing at itself is still fanservice, and making it over the top just means that there's more of it.
Nothin' but a Squirt Gun and a Magic 8-Ball: There has been a severe bureaucratic foul-up at the Pertinent Arcane Artifacts Ministry of the Forces of the Light. This Chosen One is going in *woefully* underprepared. Arc words: "That... that would have been really handy."
How Fares the Watch?: A fanfic consisting of a number of interweaving threads, following the on-duty City Watchmen of Ankh-Morpork through a single moderately eventful, but otherwise normal night. Focus on character development and relationships between the characters.
Under Cupboard Lubber: A bizarre little side story off of a bizarre Harry Potter Fix Fic/ Marty Stu. At the beginning of the story, the sky pirate crew that rescues Harry (don't ask) messes up and leaves a man behind. Now he has to pretend to be a mistreated and malnourished eight-year-old boy, partially to give his compatriots time to get away, but mostly to keep the various Concerned Entities from doing terrible things to *him* before he can manage to figure a way out of this one.
Call Not Up What Thou Canst Not Put On Hold: A short story about a magitech universe where it is, in fact possible to perform rituals (for example, summoning rituals) with the aid of technological systems (like the phone system). In fact, with the new generation of smart-phones, it's easier than ever. Our Hero bites off a bit more than he can chew.
And for mine...
Gullible Angels
And a trilogy
Djinni's Wish
Djinni's Debt
Djinni's Vow
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
Haven't got much for Gullible Angels, just fairly standard harem hijinx, but I'm pretty sure there was moee than one by that name.
The Djinni series were a set of non-system-specific Cyberpunk/Shadowrun/d20 Modern/etc. adventures, though - Wish starts with the party in severe need of cash, to the point they take a job where the task is to 'make my girl's birthday perfect,' paid in advance for once. Naturally, Djinni Glitter Goldstein is a massive troublemaker and gets them in massive trouble, culminating
--
"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
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
in a skyboard and A/V chase through the high towers that sucks in about every metrocop in the corpzone before it's over. The only bright spot is that you were paid on arrival, and her corp exec daddy sweeping everything under the rug means you get off scott free. Plus Djinni had a blast, her best birthday ever and you're the coolest ops team ever, which would be good in a 'developing contacts' way except...
In Djinni's Debt, she contacts you again, and this time it's a more normal cyberpunk job - break in
--
"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
Posts: 7,392
Threads: 577
Joined: Apr 2003
Reputation:
5
at this research center, steal that data and prototype, payout at the end from a cut of the sale, take me with you because I have to work for the credits. Wait, what was that last one? It seems that Corpbrat McDaddysmoney is actually being held responsible for some of the hush money from last time, this amazing plan is how she intends to get her allowance out of hock before the Singularity. Pity the corpsec goons think you're kidnapping her at crash the meeting with weapons hot. By the time it's all over,
--
"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
Posts: 25,483
Threads: 2,060
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
12
ClassicDrogn Wrote:Haven't got much for Gullible Angels, just fairly standard harem hijinx, but I'm pretty sure there was moee than one by that name. Oh, there were plenty of seasons. The Angels all worked for somebody who they called "Charlie" (not his real name) who - unbeknown to them - was a Mob boss who used them to eliminate his competition.
(Take a title, leave a title... take a title, leave a title... ah!)
First Day on the Hose Job
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
|
