Is there any way to run this as a remotely power-balanced fanfic? Any way at all?
*thinks*
Okay, so let's suppose that our friend Washuu-chan *doesn't* immediately take to Harry and start mothering him. Instead, he catches her in one of her more misanthropic moods, and she immediately presses him into service as a minion. She's a crazy, scary lady, but the more minion-like he behaves, the less crazy and scary she is at *him*. After a relatively short while, he stops showing up at the Dursley's at all - which means that Dumbledore's warning devices all start gong off. A bit more investigation winds up with Dumbledore showing up with a backup wizard (McGonagall, say), and actually managing to get into Washuu's lab. He sees that Harry is doing pretty well, but not where he should be, and tries to play "older, wiser, icon of the Light" at her. For various more-or-less obvious reasons, this goes over like a lead balloon. She does something intended to be silly/scary, wands are pulled, and Dumbledore catches her in a stunner (we're trying to keep the relative power levels somewhat even here, she wasn't aware of their capabilities, and he really is *very* good at what he does). At that point, they memory charm her, grab Harry, and abscond, before trying to figure out what the heck to do . She wakes up, wonders what the heck is going on, checks the security tapes, and becomes infuriated.
...and now we have a Harry, at whichever age you want to target it for (it's really up to you when Washuu's lab wanders over to the door under the stairs, so long as it's before he gets his letter) who's effectively a reasonably canny, reasonably capable, quite young minion (who knows it) in a tug of war between two very powerful, not actually evil individuals who really have almost no chance of getting along (and who's rivalry/war is escalating as time goes by). He's learned to do what he has to do to make such people happy - but this generally means doing what they tell you to, telling them what they want to hear, and not attracting any more attention than you have to. Voldemort's plans get derailed relatively early when Washuu hears about the odd interactions with Harry's scar (she has no idea what the deal with it is, but it's obviously strange and magical and therefore fascinating) and kidnaps Quirrel one night in order to examine him more closely and experiment on the poor blighter. In his place, she leaves a stasis-locked Ryoko (who had *not* agreed to this, but mommy has ways of coercing her anyway) with instructions on how to break her out of stasis and a note on how Washuu's sure she'll be a better DADA teacher than the pathetic wretch she'll be replacing. Eventually Voldemort comes back on screen as the core of an "escaped lab experiment run amok", but that isn't for at least a plot arc or two. This Harry isn't conquering the world. He's trying desperately to survive as a pawn in a battle between two (and then three) tremendously powerful individuals. It's lighter on the death and heavier on the hijinks than wars in the Potterverse, but that's just in keeping with the Tenchi Muyo way of things.
Also, Luna thinks that Washuu is just the nicest lady she's ever met, and can't understand what all the fuss is about.
Well I find that plot off a bit... I mean you require Washu to not only move in with the Durnslies for no real reason (though you could fudge that as Mihoshi mucking with controls and moving a side door in a manner that really, really, really should have gone total conversion bomb for half the lab... meaning Washu can't get rid of or lock the door as she can't figure out what to do about it or what Mihoshi managed to do by accident.) The stunner requires Washu to not be able to just use her standard replacement technique... so that would be more Washu as OOC than a power issue. You could also do Harry as being constantly locked in Washu's lab growing up and the only contact the universes have with each other is through Harry's room. Basically, the only character that keeps showing up is Mihoshi.
However, I was responding to how Masu!Harry specifically makes a simple crossover a should not be. I think you notice the main issue I have Sirrocco, Masu!Harry is just going to be either a 'why bother' power up and curb stomp-o-matic. You could pull it off, but it'd be hard. So this is a should not be until details are ironed out.
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You have a point. Not to mention, Washuu doesn't modify anyone else in the house, and Ryoko was built from scratch, something she can't do with Harry. (Although I imagine it might be an interesting option much later in the plot. Perhaps Harry gets all-but-killed in a year 5 or so encounter with Voldie or DEs, and rather than leave him paralyzed or in a coma or something she moves him into a custom-built body. But rather than becoming Superboy overnight, he has to learn how to use its abilities and it takes him a long time just to get the simple ones, like flight.)
I have my own problems with the ping-pong-ball Harry idea, where he bounces back and forth between Dumbledore and Washuu -- I think after the second exchange, Washuu's going to go after Harry with the entire Tenchi cast as help -- especially if any of them have managed to meet Harry. (In fact, I can see Sasami and Harry becoming playmates -- depending on what physical/mental age you see Sasami at; I've seen her pegged at anywhere between 8 and 12.) And I think there's a little fun to be poked at all the fanfic Harries who show up at Hogwarts speaking Japanese, wearing kimono and carrying katana; this Harry may end of speaking Japanese (if he learned it honestly; I can also see Washuu just injecting him with translator nanites or something because it's faster, in which case he can talk to everything, not just snakes), but he'll be as ignorant of Japanese culture as he is of Wizarding -- though he might have a somewhat confused grounding in Juraian culture...
Okay, boiling down this ramble, how's this for a basic concept?
Mihoshi does something Mihoshi-like, and connects Washuu's lab to Harry's closet in a (for the purposes of the story) permanent and undoable way, when Harry's 8 or 9 years old. It's not door-to-door, otherwise the Dursleys would notice; it's more like the Wardrobe to Narnia, in that the back wall simply goes away and Harry can keep walking deeper and deeper in, until he's in the lab proper. Which he does, visiting several times before Washuu notices him. Under the crazy, we know Washuu's a big softy for kids, so while she calls him a minion and keeps him hopping, she's also treating him well and healing what needs healing. etc. She injects him with translator nanites right from the start (for much fun later on, when he's at Hogwarts and finds he can talk to snakes, centaurs, merfolk, house-elves... practically anything that has its own language), and while she doesn't actually teach him a lot of really powerful stuff, she finds he's a polite, attentive and quiet child and talks to him about what she's doing, from which he picks up a mixed bag of information, though little in the way of actual skills. (Said information will make him seem almost as odd as Luna, once he gets to Hogwarts...) The first time he shows up bruised and battered from Dudley, she gives him a personal force field unit.
The rest of the house discovers him when Ayeka comes in one afternoon to inform Washuu that dinner's ready, finds the two of them together, and Washuu drags Harry to the meal when she learns he was sent to his closet without dinner. As a result he ends up with a playmate in Sasami and a big sister in Ryoko, and a stuffy but kinda nice spinster aunt in Ayeka. And Mihoshi thinks he's the cutest thing since Hello Kitty. Oh, and a kinda confused big brother in Tenchi. And he loves the temple. And he learns a little kenjutsu from Tenchi and Grandpa. And of course Sasami and Harry cook together, which is the first time he does it for fun and people who appreciate it. All in all, getting sent to his closet is actually a pleasant refuge for him, and the only problems he has are a growing lack of sleep (because of the time difference between England and Japan), and not letting the Dursleys know.
And when he starts doing accidental magic, well, he goes right to Washuu and tells her about it, because hey, he can do stuff like all the girls can. Why is that, Washuu-oba-chan? "Well, Harry, if you'll just stand here, and hold these two electrodes in your hands, and this third one in your mouth, we'll see what I can find out."
And when he gets back from the shopping trip with Hagrid, he immediately goes to Washuu's lab to tell her about the letter and Hogwarts. Which results in him going to school with a few "gifts" from the household, a couple of cloaked sensor drones. and anything else we can think of that's fun but not overpowering.
Oh, and a door to the Lab materializes somewhere in the Castle...
And from there? Well, we can figure that out next.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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I'm liking this idea a lot.
Throw in a few lessons in courtly Juraian manners from Ayeka so he can out-snooty Malfoy (he doesn't normally bother to, but Malfoy's such a prat it brings out his inner snark)...
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(deletes several not-helpful comments)
Right. Carry on then, I'm liking the looks of this more and more as it develops.
- CD
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Courtesy of Phil Moyer on the EPU forums:
My Little Destroid: Friendship Is Tactical, a heartwarming military adventure set in a world of mysteriously autonomous miniature war machines.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
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Bob Schroeck Wrote:No, think of Harry with all Ryoko's powers, and his own *-Ohki. Who goes with him to Hogwarts as his familiar. Hedwig-ohki, of course...
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Jinx999 Wrote:http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2278/1 ... 0artis.jpg That's been one of the wallpapers for my laptop for ages now. And while it is awesome, I now agree it is a crossover that should not be, as it could possibly result in the meeting of Xellos and Discord.
Edit: And I just noticed that I had my threads mixed up. Whoops. Still, a Xellos+Discord team up would be both terrifying and awesome.
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I'm moving the Harry Muyo stuff to its own thread so we can follow up on it without disrupting the main flow here.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Not so much a crossover that should be, but one that already is: The Dragon With The Girl Tattoo.
Ebony the Black Dragon
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"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."
I've got this idea going in my head, and I'm trying to work it around...
There are a lot of Familiar of Zero fics out there, based around the obvious crossover point. Obvious crossover point is obvious. I sort of want to turn it around, and pull Louise into some other universe through *it's* obvious crossover point, just to muck with things (particularly the shortly pre-familiar Louise, so that she can try summoning a familiar in this strange new world, and see what she gets). The problem is, the only other obvious crossover point I can think of is the Buffy Halloween Fic thing. The obvious person for the role would be Willow, and making the familiar ritual work would be relatively easy to handwave given her in-canon magical powers, but I can't see how it would result in a premise that was all that interesting - most of the characters you'd think to pick have all been powered up and shipped before. Gunn, maybe? Possibly a slayer, for having the familiar powerup do absolutely nothing.
So - can anyone think of a Louise/Familiar pairing off of a Halloween fic base that might retain some scrap of interesting and unexplored implications that make it worth more than a short one-shot? Alternately, what other obvious crossover points are there in other universes that might result in something more interesting?
Okay, actually, a double-crossover where Willow halloweens as Louise and then does the summons and actually manages to get Louise could be pretty entertaining, if only for how mindbendy it would be for her.
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The only thing that immediately springs to mind with the given situation (Willow YAHFs as Louise) is that Gandalfr Taras would be a really funny anti-typecast... But honestly, I think you could justify pulling Louise out of her world and into another via the summoning ritual as simply that since she "caught" someone more than your everyday schmuck on the line, she ends up "pulled off the dock" when she tries to reel them in and the spell acts like a bat-grapple, pulling her to them instead. Determined to MAKE it work despite the unexpected (It didn't explode! The casting didn't fail! DAMMIT I WILL HAVE MY FAMILIAR! recite-recite-liplock-blush-etc.) she goes through with the rest of the ritual anyway with the person she landed on top of, and your hijinks ensue from there.
- CD
ETA: Louise summons the Tarrasque and it gets teh Gandalfr rune? Nonono, I meant Tara, the blonde bipedal Fluttershy. Though the Tarrasque (with a more appropriate rune for a non-weapon-user) would make an intriguing familiar for her to summon in a crackfic.
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Random idea: Xander has just read "Hill of Swords". Tomorrow is Halloween. Xander has ideas....
Willow as Louise, Xander as Guiche, and Buffy misreads everything and ends up going as Saber... Cordelia-as-Kirsch is an obvious add-on if you really want to.
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Sure... but having *Louise* be the familiar would make her ideas of station and propriety mess her up in all *sorts* of ways.
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Sirrocco Wrote:So - can anyone think of a Louise/Familiar pairing off of a Halloween fic base that might retain some scrap of interesting and unexplored implications that make it worth more than a short one-shot? Hmmmmm... Since we've pulled Louise out of the FoZ universe, which other FoZ character would make a good familiar for her?
(Remainder left as an exercise for the student)
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How about if Louise got one of the student Otome from Mai Otome?Of course, they'd be limited to Coral or at best Pearl power levels unless she got Arika with the uber Gems on her necklace, but Gandalfr should make up for at least a fair bit of that. Of course, that assumes that it works at all without the various Garderobe support technology that the public never sees, but it's kind of pointless to bring out an Otome unless they can Materialize their Robe. Then again, I suppose it could be made a plot point that the new Familiar has new abiliites (possibly from a different Rune than Gandalfr, for that matter) to get used to as well.
- CD, would steal Erstin from just before getting framed and Black Lettered and generally hosed six ways to show how nastybad things have gotten after the school-days-kids style beginning
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I admit, the idea of Siesta with gandalfr runes and a frying pan is pretty entertaining.
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The Wanderer
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One or more of the various incarnations of Saiyuki (I don't know the options well enough to tell which ones might work) and the Memoirs of Number Ten Ox.
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Bill Bryson and P J O'Rourke.
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The Darhel come to Earth to offer technological aid in exchange for defending their worlds against the Posleen advance.
Emperor Colin Macintyre I declines the technology offered, but does agree to look into the situation...
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... now you have me thinking about all the possibilities for "who was there first" that could rain on the Darhel's parade, with or without certified Posie curbstomp action. Off the top of my head, there's the various Negima magical associations, the RoD British Library organization, the Transformers (Bayverse or original flavor,) BtVS supernaturals, Marvel Movieverse, Bolos, Sixty-freaking-four Crayola Knights, the pre-Rifts Earth "golden age of humanity," the TSAB, RahXephon and the Mu, HiMEs and/or Otome, the Zombie Apocalypse, MasterPC, Dresdenverse supernaturals, the King of Braves GaoGaiGar, The God Emperor of Mankind, the Spacebattles board, the gods and heroes of Olympus, Asgard, Heliopolis, etc., Terminators, Kyuubi, Suzumiya Haruhi, edgerunners, the Cyberevolved, Mobile Fighter G-Gundam, X-Com, Kyubey, NERV, Saiyajin and/or Neko Majin...
- CD, the thought plickens
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Quote:there's the various Negima magical associations, the RoD British Library organization, the Transformers (Bayverse or original flavor,) BtVS supernaturals, Marvel Movieverse, Bolos, Sixty-freaking-four Crayola Knights, the pre-Rifts Earth "golden age of humanity," the TSAB, RahXephon and the Mu, HiMEs and/or Otome, the Zombie Apocalypse, MasterPC, Dresdenverse supernaturals, the King of Braves GaoGaiGar, The God Emperor of Mankind, the Spacebattles board, the gods and heroes of Olympus, Asgard, Heliopolis, etc., Terminators, Kyuubi, Suzumiya Haruhi, edgerunners, the Cyberevolved, Mobile Fighter G-Gundam, X-Com, Kyubey, NERV, Saiyajin and/or Neko Majin...
All at once? Cool.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
In my eyes, there is a core problem with most of these.
In general,
1. Any alteration to canon must likely be strong, in order to change humanity's odds. Consider especially the level of covert intervention discussed in the Cally books. They make obvious some of the subtle bits in the earlier books. The Darhel are very good at having killed or destroyed things that would interfere with their plans.
2. Strong is likely obvious. Consider what the Kratman books and Eye of the Storm have to say about the Darhel, the Aldenata, the Posleen, and their historical interactions with humanity. The Darhel had suborned part of the US Department of State in the 1930s. They had very good intelligence on the capabilities and intentions of humanity. Any alteration too strong might have the Darhel instead opt to let the Humans and Posleen meet without warning.
3. a) If the Earth is capable of standing off the Posleen entirely on its own resources, without warning, it kinda removes the tension.
b) If humanity does not end up coupled with the Galatics somehow, they don't have an internal handle to reform the system, eventually, which raises issues like how one handles the Galactic mess from the outside, and what about the Hedren?
4) It also would seem to kinda derail the core conflict of the setting, which is the issue of the Aldenata, who ended up loading the guns that were the Posleen and Darhel, and leaving them around to go off.
For the Dahak books, Colin should have already come across traces of the Aldenata and their manipulations when he was going on the trip where he became emperor, if they didn't show up in Dahak's history or when he was standing against the mutiny.
So, there are huge potential problems in messing around with the Aldenata setting, that probably require effort, research and thought to overcome. It isn't as much 'change anything and you hurt the good guys' as Bahzell is, but it is really easy to mess things up.
Not that I let this stop me from outlining a plan for a Sailor Moon Expanded AU that had both the Aldenata and Achultaani integrated in it, some years back. (I eventually found answers to these issues that satisfied me, even if the thing was too much of a mess for me to write.) I was working off of an old piece of now ex-canon backstory that Ringo had put on his website of many years ago, and on Ben Singleton's (sp?) Legacy of the Aldenata RPG, so it wouldn't satisfy all the problems that modern known and implied canon present.
(However, I think that canon and ex-canon seems to be fairly congruent.)
And the spacebattles forum crossover with the Legacy of the Aldenata has already been done. It is called the Legacy of the Aldenata by John Ringo, and can be found here:
http://www.webscription.n...enata-by-john-ringo.aspx
*Grins, ducks, and explains while backpeddling*
Note: I figure that in canon I get eaten. I also figure that a good amount of a lot of internet forums would also get eaten.
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