Non-NGE fanfiction ideas

[Doublegee]

Seven of Nine gets sucked through a spacetime anomaly and ends up in early 21st century Earth, where she meets Dr. House. Hilarity ensues.

Sarah Connor is running through the desert from a Terminator, wanders into Perfection, Nevada, and meets Burt Gummer. Hilarity ensues.

[Chuckman]

A certain rocket strikes the kingspyre tower in Harrenhal in the year 283 AL.

I would be doing this already but (a) have no time and (b) GRRM is vocally anti-fanfiction and I'm not sure how I feel about defying that (c) I've done the same concept already.

[NemZ]

I'm having a hard time seeing this thread as anything other than a bunch of pointless lists and nonsense. AKA A whole lot of spam.

Why should this stay open? Convince me.

[Bagheera]

I've actually always wanted a thread like this, as it's a way to talk about cool ideas for fiction that aren't Eva-related. We actually don't have any other place to talk about that on the forum, which was somewhat surprising to me when I first ran up against it.

As for my own contribution to the thread: I've always had an idea about a Bleach character, a girl in the scout corps who was an Indian girl from East Africa during her mortal life. She was defined by her unparalleled control over her reiatsu; she wasn't particularly strong, but she was able to focus her spirit energy in ways that made even captains jealous. As a result of her ability she became instrumental in a story centered on some extremely powerful hollows that had been bound somewhere in the wilds of the spirit world. As it happened, her ability made her a channeller as well as a gifted fighter, so the captains used her to destroy the hollows in question. The crux of the story comes when she uses this newfound power to destroy her former husband, a powerful Shinigami in his own right, who was a horrible person in his former life. She is then sentenced to death, and everyone from her father (also a rotten individual) to the king of soul society himself gets involved at that point. All of the above is setup for her conversations with the spirit king, which are themselves an examination of her life up to this point and her motivations going forward. Even now I haven't decided whether she should live or die; everything that's meaningful in the story happens before that decision comes up. Since I'm a bit of a sap I tend to think she should live, particularly if that means she'll be an ordinary seated officer (and thus not some martyred Mary Sue, which would disgust me to no end).

But this is a prime example of a story no one would ever give a shit about, so I suppose it's all moot.

[Monk Ed]

I've written bits and pieces and chunks (well, okay, several chapters) of a fanfiction over time that, like all my projects, I never finished. I called it PatchWorld. It follows Kid (from Chrono Cross) but is really about the world she finds herself in. (Earlier versions followed her as just one of many characters before I started feeling that having a strong lead to relate to would be better.)

At the start, she wakes up on a cliff overlooking a beach, on an island, sitting hugging her knees and clad in her gear and clutching her amulet; she's been "world-hopping" looking for Serge, just as she might have been implied to be doing in Chrono Cross's ending, and, like every time, she hopes this time is the time she finds him. (She doesn't behave like some ancient world-hopping entity who has seen multiple lifetimes; every time she hops, all her experiences between her first life and her current one are remembered more like dreams.) As she goes along she meets the likes of Ichigo (Bleach), Vincent (FF7), and others. The island is seemingly uninhabited except for these rare individuals. She discovers a curiously abandoned, largely intact town in the middle of a section of forest that looks as if stuck in a perpetual autumn for a certain radius from the town, and through a materia that Vincent gives her, called the Trace materia, she learns the story of what happened there, through the stories of him and Ichigo and others they know, by using the materia in combination with significant items of theirs (such as Orihime's hairpin) to reveal scenes the significant item has "absorbed" by being on the person during these emotionally significant events, which is how their stories are told without the narrative leaving Kid's side.

A common thread among their stories is that they all came to this world-in-common from their own worlds, often unknowingly or via cataclysm, and have changed (often significantly) since. Both in terms of adapting to the new world, and in other ways: In a lot of cases their powers from before either don't work or work differently. And, like Kid, many of them are searching for someone.

Ichigo, for example, lost his power, as did Rukia and Orihime who came with him in the same transference event. As a result, they were all powerless to stop it when certain forces (a cabal in diamond-studded robes, later to be known as the Argyles) took Orihime (at that time having become in a relationship with Ichigo) away for unknown reasons. After the attack, Ichigo turns out to have been transformed (not via the attack, though it might look like it) into a creature called a Darly, which gives him back at least some of his former power (such as the use of his bankai) but at the cost that he builds up a kind of drive that he must vent by having sex with people or else he'll transform into a monster (played by his full hollow form) if it builds up too much. The nature of the condition pains Ichigo deeply, and after ruining a few lives and couples (off-screen, in the backstory) with his new needs and impulses, he takes Naruto as a (false) lover so as to minimize his damage by having sex with only the same person over and over again to vent the byproduct of his condition. (Obviously, liberties are taken with the characters' sexualities for the sake of satisfying my own kinks.) Against this backdrop, Ichigo and Rukia search for Orihime, while struggling to resist their own mutual attraction, for her sake. That's the backstory, establishing a status quo that collapses when it turns out that a Darly can't just keep using the same person over and over again, which comes to a head when Ichigo finally breaks and goes into town to find someone different to have sex with only to pair up with Naruko without knowing it's actually Naruto so he winds up having sex with the same person one too many times and if I don't stop here I'll be going on for pages.

Lots of the plotlines similarly revolve around relationships: Tifa's with Cloud, Kid's with (the missing) Serge, etc, all combined with an epic journey. Discovering what happened to that town is just one step on a journey that grows to encompass more islands and the gradual discovery of the nature of the world the characters have found themselves in and of the mysterious robed humanoids who have intervened so negatively in their lives.

At the end of said epic journey (or close to it, at least) the characters discover

Ending  SPOILER: Show

a giant underground supercomputer called LOGOS (inspired by but unrelated to Chrono Cross's FATE). Thereby, they learn that the world they are in is constructed of patched-together pieces of other worlds: The PatchWorld is theorized as floating in the ether (tentatively called "the akashic records" within the story), and, when it rubs against another world, LOGOS creates a temp copy of that world from which it then patches in whatever pieces its algorithm desires; the Argyles originated as LOGOS's "mark and sweepers", determining when the temp copy was safe to delete, but then at some point they grew beyond their bounds and took it upon themselves to "correct" LOGOS's decisions in their own way, their actions in such pursuit making them the main antagonists of the story. The characters learn that, in all likelihood, they themselves are just copies, if the other worlds exist at all (as opposed to being just data within LOGOS).

My plan was, at the end, the characters would take control of LOGOS and have the opportunity to "go back" whence they came, in the form of creating new worlds which replicate the worlds whence they came as they were when they were copied from them. Some might decide to take that option, others might decide to stay in the PatchWorld because the other option just wouldn't be "real".

Of course, what really matters is everything that happens in between, which is much harder to summarize: Kid's search for Serge, Ichigo and Rukia's search for Orihime, sexual tensions between characters of same and different origin worlds, the new bonds and adventures (and sex) had along the way, etc. And despite the angst-ridden description, the story typically takes itself fairly lightly.

But this is a prime example of a story no one would ever give a shit about, so I suppose it's all moot.

Does it help that I read every word of your summary? What do you think makes it so undesirable?

[NemZ]

Well, if people are actually going to put some effort into it and not just toss out passing whimsy that's quite a different story indeed.

I've had a few other fanfic concepts and one Ranma 1/2 story that went on for 150k words or so before I just lost steam. Now I can't look at it without wanting to start over from scratch and toss out the vast majority of overcomplications I added along the way. It's just a mess. I suppose that's how Takahashi-san felt too, since in many ways InuYasha is Ranma with a stable cast and consistent narrative. Does makes me kind of depressed that I haven't finished it though.

I'll share one concept I never got around to fleshing out though, a Cowboy Bebop continuation. I like the title "Fading Distant Lights" Spoiler for length:

SPOILER: Show

Years down the road Faye and Jet are now reluctant partners in the bounty gig, still just scraping by as best they can. They've switched to a strategy of nailing lots of small timers rather than chasing big game, which is comparatively boring but much more steady. That suits Jet just fine since he isn't getting any younger, and Faye is mostly just going through the motions, haven lost a lot of her old spark.

On one particular job they catch a little nobody with just enough information to make himself dangerous. He want to trade the info that can lead to a much bigger score, but Jet's heard this shit before a thousand times and isn't buying until the perp namedrops a certain young lady hacker he used to date. Turns out that Ed has gotten herself involved in a string of major cyberheists for an unknown backer, but useless got the hell out of dodge when he found out from another lowlife that the targets were all syndicate fronts with ties to remnants of the now defunct Red Dragons.

So of course Faye and Jet are trying to track her down, but as they learn more and more about Ed's questionable dealings it's not clear even to them whether they're primarily in it to save her from herself of to collect on her bounty. And when they finally do catch up to her, she knew damn well who she was hitting and was doing it on purpose to get their attention because she's learned that Spike is alive and running one of those syndicates, but she's not sure which one.

Okay, actual spoiler now (assuming I ever get around to writing this up):

SPOILER: Show

Spike is actually the backer. He's a minor player at one syndicate (a consultant, no longer in any shape to work hits) who is trying to take the whole damn system down by playing them against each other. He's gone to great pains to insure Ed didn't know this, and he's been making the situation more complicated in an effort to push Faye and Jet out of it before the gang war goes hot.

And the big twist:

SPOILER: Show

Actually, no he's not. He's dead. So is Jet, who was her partner until he got shot down by a high bounty desperado. None of this actually happened. In truth Faye is willingly trapped in a mental simulator similar to those used by the SCRATCH cult. Ed is hacking into the simulation in an attempt to break her out of it and come back to real life. She's playing along because when she attempted direct contact Faye completely ignored her presence, but in acting the part she's in danger of forgetting the truth and being dragged into the simulation as well.

So yeah, I know... 'it was all a dream', meh. But played right it has serious bittersweet potential, the trope doesn't have to be just some typical copout bullshit.

[Stillborn]

You got some nice ideas and pretty interesting story

I'll drop something here as well. It's been ages since I actually wrote something, especially in english.

But here's my Sailor Moon fic concept. It suppose to be after last season of anime. Greatest enemy apparently defeated and everything should be dandy.

(Sorry if it's kind of messy. I suck at putting things into words T_T)

SPOILER: Show

Story starts at the Gate of Time. Pluto keeping guard at the Gate, is suddenly assaulted be demonic looking group. Overpowered and knocked out, before she looses consciousness she sees that the apparent leader of the group is messing with the Gate.

When she wakes up, the Gate is wide open, but behind it is only grey fog. Soon she discovers she can't see the future. At all. Likewise she can't travel through time. Something seems to be throwing future out of whack, from this point onwards.

Meanwhile on Earth, a new type of Monster Of The Week appears. They call themselves Nulls and seem to wreak havoc at random, without any actual goal. Upon defeat by Sailor Moon's purifying power, they turn back to human... And seem very unhappy for that.

Pluto gathers the Senshi and informs them of the time anomaly.

Meanwhile the plot supposed to show where Nulls come from.
The leader of invaders seeks out people who are emotionally hurt or confused (for example Shinji or post-Arael Asuka would be perfect), sometimes manipulating them into despair himself, and then he appears in front of them offering them a contract that will "relieve them from pain and give them armor to protect them from hurt".
Once they accept the deal, he drains a large part of soul from the victim empowering himself (getting level up XD) and replaces it with his own dark power, transforming victim into a "monster" that wanders aimlessly, following acting on remains of its erased emotions. Negative remains.

Eventually he will intrduce himself as Deimos (along with a shitload of narcisstic and flamboyant titles likes to flaunt around XD) and his group as Syndicate.
He will confirm that they indeed are the ones responsible for time malfunction.
He will demonstrate powers to create cursed flame and induce fear and hallucinations, further waving the flag of villiany with "Typical Villian Powers TM"
He will try to actually seduce Senshi into becoming Nulls, more then once, but since the series works on Power of Friendship, they will always be supported by their friends and pulled from whatever pit, Deimos will try to drag them in.

The Senshi take note that they don't see or hear from another members of Syndicate, leaving them with tracking Deimos and stopping occasional Nulls rampage, while trying to figure out what Syndicate's aim is.

Eventually Deimos' twin sister, Lou arrives and finally drops the bomb. Syndicate are just a small unit, subservient to giant cosmic organization, Zenith.
Through the Gate of Time, they learned that the Great Freeze destined to happen, will be caused by a meteor composed of dark energy (At least that's my version since if I remember correctly, official reason is never stated).
So while the Deimos was sending Senshi on a wild goose chase around Tokyo with his Nulls, the rest of Syndicate spread across the globe and revealed themselves to world leaders.
Using manipulation and "scientific research" they managed to convince most prominent figures about a cataclysm that will cause global ice age.
Then in secrecy involving only most influental people, they started gigantic project, to prepare Earth to prevent the catastrophe, gathering most briliant minds on the planet and resources from every source possible. All in utter secrecy to not cause panic.

What does that mean? If there's no Great Freeze, Serenity will not be the savior of the planet. She won't be hailed a global hero and eventually worlds' queen. Crystal Tokyo will never come to existence. On other hand, Zenith will gain influence over Earth as a benefactor who issued warning and a help.
Syndicate actions actually cause the future to be unstable and unpredictible for Pluto, giving her a hint that they actually may change the outcome of the future into something uncalculable.

The most fun part that Syndicate loves to poke Senshi with? They are actually preventing catastrophe that may cause giant death toll. If Senshi want their Crystal Tokyo future, they have to stop Syndicate and the whole project. But then they will be the villians wishing for mass death, for the sake of their rise to power, making them actual enemies of mankind

That's the concept I got a while ago. I don't know where to go from here or what happens from this point onward. I just tought of it in a spare time, more for fun then out of serious project

[Monk Ed]

Man, Stillborn, that story is so you. You complain about Anno, but in the ways you say you don't like him, you're so much worse.

[Stillborn]

Why? I have one OC troll and asshole but whole OC group actually do something good without stacking corpses or hiding behind necessary sacrifices or colaterall damage. Hell, they are better than Outers in that aspect.

[Bagheera]

Does it help that I read every word of your summary? What do you think makes it so undesirable?

Mainly because it's a Bleach fic about an OC. Most people of taste aren't huge Bleach fans to begin with, but even though who do like parts of it wouldn't have much interest in an OC and alternate timelines and such. So, while I think the character herself is pretty compelling, and the story fairly solid, I can't imagine there'd be much interest in it. But I'm often wrong about such things, so who knows?

Why? I have one OC troll and asshole but whole OC group actually do something good without stacking corpses or hiding behind necessary sacrifices or colaterall damage. Hell, they are better than Outers in that aspect.

I think he's referring to the fact that you've set up the MCs as villains and given them no way out. That's exactly what you complain about with Anno re: Shinji, only on a bigger scale.

NemZ: I was totally with you up until the big twist. I would read the shit out of that story. But with the twist . . . meh. Seems out of step with Bebop's general tone, though I grant that that's a terribly subjective matter.

[Stillborn]

There is difference.

Anno is literally kicking the lying. Piling failure upon failure on a single unstable teenager who is allready broken. Destroying whatever attempt at happiness he tries to find.
What I'm doing? Putting characters who have proven their strengh and resilence (and out of ass last minute powers ) in a serious predicament. One that they have not faced before. And one: Unlike Shinji they are hardly out of options or support from allies. And two: What they actually have to lose is the position as world rulers, they would gain at the cost of uncountable death toll, not someone they care for.

So yeah. There is big difference between what me and Anno does to MC.

[Bagheera]

What I'm doing? Putting characters who have proven their strengh and resilence (and out of ass last minute powers ) in a serious predicament. One that they have not faced before. And one: Unlike Shinji they are hardly out of options or support from allies. And two: What they actually have to lose is the position as world rulers, they would gain at the cost of uncountable death toll, not someone they care for.

Broken as Shinji is it's not hard to see the setup for Gendo being defeated in Final and Shinji coming to some sort of reckoning with his friends and such and as a result coming to a resolution. But from what you've described the Sailor Scouts can't do that, since their only options are to either let the bad guys win or become villains themselves. Not even Shinji is that bad off, even if he's been hurt more directly.

[Stillborn]

But unlike Anno I'm not forcing "realism" where it suits me and drops it whenever I need someone fucked over beyond real life scale.
Sailor Moon was always a little cheesy series with impossible being possible with power of friendship. So the predicament they face is unusual but not over the top in their universe. Shinji on other hand... Should realisticaly end in asylum or dead after dust falls. But probably end up alive but even more ridiculed in meta than he was after EoE. Bottom line is I'm not torturing characters and I'm not stripping them from all they have or scar them for life.

[NemZ]

@ Bags:

Well, the problem with that is I have a hard time taking the concept seriously just from the synopsis. Too many coincidences and lucky breaks required to get from A to B, so there simply must be something else at work to hold a plot like that together for any length of time.

Not sure what you're talking about with regards to theme being off. Bebop is just FULL of people haunted by the past, dreams, what could have been, or looking for closure when there isn't any to be found. The only solace in this mess is whatever sort of family you can put together, but what happens when it all falls apart and you're once again just one more solitary speck of light in the great void, alone and unnoticed until you flame out one final time... or try to, anyway. This lets Ed serve up an antithesis to Spike's choice in the series ending.

As to your fic, I haven't see more than an episode or two of Bleach so I kinda eh? about the whole thing. Though you're definately right in that most potential readers are in it for the charecters not the setting, and as such it's damn hard to get any kind of traction with an OC protagonist.

@Stillborn:

I can see that working. It's been a while and the name escapes me, but I seem to recall reading at least one fic (a big crossover sort of thing) that depicted a sort of law vs. chaos battle with the senshi on the law side of things, but from certain points of view definately not 'good'. In a lot of ways that sort of predestined, ends will justify the means take on things Pluto works with absolutely does demand to be questioned. After all, how is Crystal Tokyo that much different that what Seele was up to?

[Stillborn]

^
Thanks. It's like this. Usagi is great person, and would probably be awesome queen. But the price for that would be earth suffering second ice age. and Pluto knows this but refuses to reveal what will cause it, making events roll as they are destined even if it kills billions. At one moment she hides behind rules of fate and time, but when it suits her she causes changes in the future. Zenith counteracts against this through Syndicate, making future path unpredictible, since this attitude actually pisses Zenith's leader off

[Bagheera]

Well, the problem with that is I have a hard time taking the concept seriously just from the synopsis. Too many coincidences and lucky breaks required to get from A to B, so there simply must be something else at work to hold a plot like that together for any length of time.

I don't see much in the way of coincidences at work there, but since this is just a thumbnail sketch of the concept I'm of course missing out on a lot of detail. But Spike masterminding a syndicate war using Ed (who's in it to find Spike) and trying to keep those he cares about out of it seems pretty solid on the face of it.

As for the twist . . . it's hard to describe, but Bebop always struck me as being about hurt people building something new and having a bit of fun along the way. Yes, things started to fall apart at the end, but not in ways that were completely FUBAR; as of the end of the show, in fact, the scenario you initially describe is actually quite plausible. But with the twist it's just a couple of broken people trying to stave off their ultimate miserable ends, with the rest of the cast having already lost the battle. I never got that downer vibe from Bebop (at least not with the MCs; Jupiter Jazz and a few other eps certainly gave it to us for supporting cast).

As to your fic, I haven't see more than an episode or two of Bleach so I kinda eh? about the whole thing. Though you're definately right in that most potential readers are in it for the charecters not the setting, and as such it's damn hard to get any kind of traction with an OC protagonist.

Yeah. I think it would work as a side story if it were animated and had a big push behind it -- there are some good visual hooks in there, which of course don't come across in a printed format -- but as a fanfic it's just too niche to go anywhere. And of course, there's some stuff that's been invalidated by recent events in the manga, too. The parts in the fic with Shuhei Hisagi (my OC's kinda-sorta love interest) would probably still work okay, but I had this image of the Spirit King being played by Tony Todd and, ah, that won't work anymore. I was also planning on having her former husband be a member of Squad Zero and her father being from one of the royal families, and both of those would be problematic now (less so with her father, as it's not too hard to sell Yoruichi as an Indian, so there's room to maneuver there, but none of the Squad Zero members as shown in the manga fit the husband at all). I'm sure I could fiddle with it and adapt it a bit once Bleach is over and all, and I might, but the manga's gotten wonky enough that I'm not sure it's worth the trouble.

[Chuckman]

Since I'll most likely never actually write it for the reasons listed above, here's a detailed synopsis of the idea I detailed above. I'm putting it in spoiler tags for the sake of anybody hypersensitive about Game of Thrones spoilers.

SPOILER: Show

The story starts at the Ruby Ford as the characters move south, just before the incident with the butcher's boy and Lady the direwolf's death. Following the pattern of the television show, the characters have been aged up a tad more. This becomes relevant later.

The story opens with Arya. She meets a newcomer, an ornately armored freerider who mistakes her for a lowborn girl or servant due to her dress and dirty appearance. He introduces himself as Karlon Rivers, the bastard son of Sheilla Whent, who has come to enter Ned Stark's service, with a letter from his mother (who is Cat Stark's aunt; the books don't confirm Shiella's relationship to Minisa but they would presumably be of the same generation) identifying him and yadda yadda.

Ned is too busy with the king and shit to deal with him, but agrees to take him on, and orders him to guard Arya for the rest of the day.

Arya introduces him to Mycah, and they go around looking for Rhaegar's rubies and generally fucking around doing teenager things. Joffrey and Sansa show up on horseback, and the argument proceeds as in the books, but when Joffrey pulls his sword on a lowborn boy with a stick, Karlon gets in the way.

Enraged, Joffrey attacks him, but Karlon is so fast he just ducks out of the way of all his swings. This is our first hint that something is off about our boy. In the process, he manages to lead Joffrey away from the girls and Mycah, until he gets tired out, trips over his own feet, and winds up in the mud.

They all wind up back at the holdfast where Joffrey accuses Karlon of attacking him. Cersei demands his head, the argument ensues, and is ultimately defused when Renly mocks Joffrey for being unable to even land a blow on his opponent and points out that he probably did trip over his own feet. Ned convinces Robert that if Karlon meant to hurt Joffrey he would have; he had the Valyrian steel sword of his House and the girls both agree he never bared steel against the prince, and Mycah is there to back him up, though he's scared shitless obviously. Karlon is now on Cersei's shit list.

With that defused, things proceed is normal. The gigantic wheelhouse is stuck in the mud the next morning and the royal procession can't get moving without it. With no one (but Arya, of course) looking, Karlon singlehandedly lifts the stuck axle out of the mud without apparent effort, and the royal party moves on.

Flash forward to the capital. The goings on of the first book continue in the background. Karlon and Mycah who are now friends hear of the Tourney of the Hand, and Karlon comes up with a crazed scheme to enter the lists as a mystery knight. He can't wear his own armor, a gift from his mother, so they cobble together a mismatched suit, and Mycah acts as his squire.

The tourney proceeds. Karlon rides and defeats everyone he tilts against as a mystery knight wearing a red cape. He draws Gregor Clegane as an opponent, but is unworried. Before their tilt, he shocks the spectators by riding past the royal box and overlooking Sansa to ask for Arya's favor. Arya being Arya she doesn't have the standard favor to give (part of her sleeve, a hanky, etc.) so she steals the flower Loras gave Sansa and gives him that instead. He tucks it in his helmet.

In the first tilt, Karlon is almost blown off his horse but manages to stay up, shattering the Mountains' lance. This goes on three times, with the Mountain barely keeping his saddle on the third pass. On the fourth, the Mountain goes down.

Enraged, Gregor gets up, slaughters his horse, and goes after Karlon with his huge-ass sword. The latter dismounts and sends his horse running, and draws his Valyrian sword, thus revealing his identity. He blocks or dodges all of Gregor's blows easily, ducking around behind him and prompting laughter from the commons that only pisses the Mountain off even more. Eventually the Hound jumps in and Robert stops the fight, as in the books.

Karlon thanks the house, addresses him as "ser" and gets the usual rebuff. This will be important later.

Robert demands the identity of the Mystery Knight. Karlon thinks about running, then goes up and reveals himself. Nobody has a clue who he is, so he has to identify himself as Lady Whent's bastard and confess that he isn't a knight.

Robert being Robert, his response is that he is now; he orders him to stand a vigil that night so he can receive his oils. He also names him the champion of the lists and gives him a laurel wreath to choose the Queen of Love and Beauty. (This is left out in the books- I assume that Robert, for obvious reasons to those familiar with the backstory, leaves this part out of all his tournaments, but eh) Karlon naturally chooses Arya, which freaks Ned out, again for obvious reasons.

Flash forward. Despite his obvious reservations given their behavior, Karlon is still Arya's defacto personal guard and has joined her lessons with Syrio Forel. Syrio is immediately suspicious of his claim to having little or no sword training, as he's shockingly fast and learns every move Syrio teaches after seeing it once. Syrio has Arya spar with him until she's so winded she can barely stand, but Karlon isn't eve breathing hard, which pisses her off, and they have a very charged argument about it that leads to Karlon making a small overture towards her but shrinking back at the last minute, mindful of Ned's cold anger about the issue.

Karlon spends some time with Mycah, confused about his unexpected feelings for Arya and his lord's hostility on the matter. At this point he hears that Arya has gone missing (she's out hunting cats) and goes to find her. He eventually discovers her in the secret tunnels of the Red Keep, about to emerge into the storerroom where the dragon skulls are kept, and Illyrio Mopatis is conspiring with Varys.

Karlon is able to navigate the tunnels easily and return to the Red Keep from inside. Arya asks how he did it and he cryptically replies that he can do things other people can't. He takes her directly to Ned, who is furious. He chides Arya for running off, and though both Arya and Karlon tell him about Illyrio and Varys (as in the books) he ignores it as childish nonsense and sends Arya off. He then tells Karlon that he if he learns of the boy running off with Arya again, he'll send him back to Harrenhal. Karlon protests that his intentions are innocent.

Frustrated, Karlon goes down to the yard, and ends up sparring with the Hound, who mocks him for his anointment and his obvious affection for Arya. Karlon loses control, disarms him, and knocks him on his ass, then storms off. People are starting to notice that there's something unusual about this boy.

Flash forward. When Catelyn arrives in secret, Karlon is with Ned when they go to the brothel to meet her. Cue hilarious awkwardness as Karlon waits around in the brothel for them to come out. When Ned emerges, he asks if he really believes the Imp tried to kill his son, and comments that he's absolutely sure that Littlefinger is lying about something. When asked how he knows, he "just knows". Cat is immediately and extremely suspicious about him due to her prejudice against bastards, but Karlon is polite and deferential towards her, even when Cat makes a comment about staying away from Arya.

Afterwards, Karlon goes to meet Arya for their sparring session. It's heated, and Arya doesn't understand why Karlon is acting strangely towards her. Even though she's thirteen and about a year younger than he is, she doesn't really "get" it. He almost explains, but Syrio wisely interrupts them with a story from Braavos. Afterwards he takes Karlon aside and talks to him in private, at which point Karlon comes to understand that he like-likes Arya, but even the second daughter of a great house is off limits to a bastard from a minor house that will go extinct when his mother dies and there is no one to inherit Harrenhal. The best Karlon could ever hope for is to earn enough glory to become a landed knight.

Syrio being the wise sage he is tells him that if he fails to win Arya's hand he will regret it forever, but if he never tries he will regret that forever, too. Karlon considers this.

Flash forward. Karlon is summoned to Ned's solar. He's sending him with the girls via ship to White Harbor, with a few other guards, and plans to leave himself soon. Littlefinger shows up, tells Ned about the bastard at the brothel, and disrupts the plan. Karlon ends up going with Ned, Jory Cassel and the other guards.

Things proceed as normal until Jaime and his Lannister guards show up outside. Littlefinger runs off for "help" and Jaime orders his men to kill Ned's guard. Karlon cuts through the Lannister men like a hot knife, but doesn't actually kill any of them. He takes a spear to the back, but is unhurt, and directly challenges Jaime, eventually forcing him to flee. Ned still goes down under his horse.

When Ned asks how he is unhurt, he makes up a lame excuse about the spearpoint getting caught in his cloak and missing his flesh, but Ned being Ned buys it completely.

Flash forward. Jaime has fled, Catelyn holds Tyrion, and the Mountain is raiding. Karlon see his chance to earn some glory and possibly advance his station enough to ask after Arya, and volunteers to join the party sent to bring in the Mountain for justice, but Ned refuses his plea and sends him away.

He winds up with Arya and explains the situation to her, repeatedly, because she doesn't get it until he blurts out that he wants to marry her. Arya being Arya, she's shocked and freaked out and runs off, leaving him alone. He glumly returns to his quarters, running into the Hound on the way, who mocks and shoves him, trying to pick a fight. Karlon snaps back that he's noticed how Sandor looks at Sansa, and the two part ways angrily.

Flash forward. King Robert has died, and Karlon is with Ned when he goes to present Robert's will to the Small Council and depose Joffrey. When the watch turns on Ned, he orders Karlon to get the girls and get them out of the keep.

Karlon runs off, bashing his way through the watch and Lannister guards. He finds a dying Syrio, who tells him which way Arya has gone, and the Kingsguard are after her. Karlon has to choose between going after Arya or going after Sansa. Angry at his own selfishness, he runs after Arya.

She's already outside of the Red Keep via the same tunnel, and lost in the crowd. Karlon has to discard his armor and Whent colors, for fear of being identified as he searches for her.

After a day of searching, he's about to give up and go back for Sansa when he spots a dirtied, frightened Arya trying to bargain for a stale tart from a baker. Karlon has enough coin on him to buy them some food, but doesn't eat any himself. He gets them a room at an inn under a false name, but doesn't actually sleep, instead guarding the door all night. He's got his Valyrian sword wrapped up in his old black cloak.

Karlon and Arya argue. He tells Arya he swore an oath, and he has to go back for Sansa, but she doesn't want him to leave. She's afraid they'll kill him. He tells her he's not sure he can be killed. Confused, she asks how he found her in the tunnels, how he unhorsed the Mountain, and how he was able to lift up the back end of the wheelhouse by himself. He tells her doesn't know, only that his mother, Lady Whent, told him he was different and special and he must never, ever let anyone know; if anyone knew what he could do, they would use or kill him.

Arya successfully begs him to stay, arguing they should get help and that Karlon can't possibly save Ned and Sansa by himself, no matter what he can do. Reluctantly, Karlon agrees to wait and work on an actual plan rather than trying to storm the Red Keep alone.

A few days later, they hear the commotion, and a passerby says they're taking the traitor Hand to the Great Sept. Karlon convinces Arya to stay behind at the inn, and goes to the Sept of Baelor. He watches Ned confess, and Joffrey orders Ilyn Payne to behead him.

Karlon has to make a decision. After a moment's hesitation, he shoves through the crowd and leaps up onto the dais, and stops the swing of Ice at the last second, but the blade badly cuts his arm and he falls back, shocked and bleeding. All hell breaks loose, and a wounded Karlon snaps Eddard's chains with his bare hands, grabs him, and dives into the crowd, bearing him over his shoulder. There are too many guards, though, and they are surrounded.

Karlon manages to fight them off; common steel swords can't hurt him at all, and he can toss the guards around like children. When the Lannister guard and city watch arrive in force, an enraged Karlon knocks over the statue of Baelor, picks it up, and hurls it at the gate to the square, blocking the way as he escapes with a wounded Ned.

After wrapping Ned up in his cloak, Karlon carries him, unconscious, back to the Inn. He took a stab wound in the melee, and his leg has festered. Karlon looks him over and realizes that he's going to die if they don't get him to a maester. Arya is panicked and freaking out and grabs Karlon, bawling her eyes out.

Ned wakes up and regains coherence long enough to grab Karlon's sleeve and tell him he was wrong, and there is no better match for Arya, and begs him to get Sansa away from the Red Keep. Arya wants him to stay, but he explains he swore an oath, and swathes Eddard in cloths soaked in cold water to bring his fever down before leaving. Arya notices that Karlon's wound has completely healed, not even leaving a scar.

By now, Joffrey and Cersei, etc. are back at the Keep, which is buttoned up tight. Karlon appears outside the throne room and bashes the doors open, and strides down the great hall, unarmored, wearing the same red cloak he wore when he rode as a mystery knight.

As he approaches, Littlefinger mockingly demands to know what colors he's wearing. Karlon says they're from his father's house. He commands Joffrey to release Sansa; Karlon becomes enraged when he notices she has a large bruise on her face and demands to know where it came from. Joffrey mockingly informs him that he had Meryn Trant hit her, and commands him to kneel before his king.

"You are no king of mine, nor are you the son of Robert Baratheon', but of Jaime Lannister. I name you Joffrey Hill."

Joffrey orders the Kingsguard to attack him, along with Ilyn Payne. Karlon rips Meryn Tran's sword out of his hands, bends it in half, and throws him across the hall. Barristan the Bold tears off his helmet and undoes his cloak, and refuses to fight. Boros Blount runs, and Karlon handily defeats the others with his bare hands. This time he's ready for Ilyn Payne, disarms him, and recovers Ice, which he can easily swing around one-handed.

Joffrey grabs Sansa and holds a dagger to her throat. If Karlon doesn't leave, he'll kill her. Karlon puts down the sword and raises his hands in surrender, and starts to back away. To the collective shock of the court, the Hound seizes Joffrey and knocks him out with the hilt of his sword. Sansa suffers a nick to her throat and starts bleeding like a stuck pig.

Karlon grabs her, pulls her hand away, and stares at her neck. The wound is cauterized. He puts her up over his shoulder, and hands off Ice to the Hound, saying he needs it more than Karlon does. They cut their way out of the Red Keep, but there's a problem. The entire city is searching for them.

Karlon bundles up Sansa and they make it back to the inn, where they discover the solution to their problem: the black brother, Yoren, heard that the Hand was hiding out, and points out that if he knows, others will as well and they have little time. He offers to help smuggle the Starks out of the city. Ned is in a bad way, but still alive.

To disguise them, Arya suggests dressing herself and Sansa up as boys. They both cut their hair short, and color Sansa's hair with soot to disguise its red color. The Hound points out that they'll never make it out of the city gates with himself, Karlon, and Eddard, and offers to ride and distract the guards. When Karlon asks why he'd do that, he points out that he's a dead man now. Karlon goes with him, and they make a break for the gates with bundles tied to their backs, to make it look like they have someone else riding on their mounts behind them.

The plan succeeds, and the Night's Watch party leaves through the Mud Gate without trouble while Karlon and the Hound plow through the guards and make a mad break for the countryside. Karlon tries to stop the Hound from killing them, but fails, and they argue about the stupidity of letting them live.

Eventually, they make their way back to Yoren's procession. Ned still needs a maester, and his fading in and out of consciousness; his wound is too bad for Karlon to do what he did before with Sansa. He suggests they head to Harrenhal; Yoren had visited there before, so it would not be suspicious, and his mother's maester could help Ned.

Flash forward. The party arrives at Harrenhal, but finds the gates barred. Karlon reveals himself and Lady Whent welcomes him to the castle. Once inside, he reveals to her that they have Ned and the girls and are being hunted by the crown. The maester sees to Ned, and a raven is sent to Riverrun, rather than Winterfell directly, to pass on the word. Word has already reached Harrenhal that Robb has called his banners, but has not yet moved south.

Ned calls Karlon to his side. He reveals that before he went to confront Cersei, he sent out a decree in Robert's name legitimizing Karlon; he is now Karlon Whent, and will inherit Harrenhal on his mother's passing. (Get it? "Karlon Whent". Hehehehehe)

Ned is too sick to be moved. Yoren has to move on; he's already bent the rules to the breaking part regarding involving the Watch in the affairs of the realm. That leaves Harrenhal to be defended by a tiny Whent household guard. The raven that comes back from Riverrun advises them to flee- Tywin Lannister has raised a host and is crossing the riverlands, with Gregor Clegane riding ahead with his raiders. Hoster Tully has called his banners, but they will not arrive in time to garrison Harrenhal, and will try to engage the Lannister host on open ground.

Karlon gathers the Whent household guard, now his men, and sends out every raven in the rookery with a note explaining what the hell is going on, and revealing Joffrey's parentage. He gathers them on the outer walls, and waits outside the gates, alone.

The Mountain's men arrive, but cannot besiege the castle, being too few in number, so turn to ravaging the countryside instead. Karlon pursues them, but they fall back far enough that he can't follow, afraid to leave the castle. A raven arrives; the Lannisters brutally crushed Edmure Tully's host and sent them fleeing back to Riverrun, and the Northern host has not yet crossed the neck. Another host under Jaime is approaching the castle, coming for Ned, while Tywin's host will move to lay siege to Riverrun.

Having no choice but to abandon the castle, with Ned finally well enough to safely move, Karlon leads them out through a secret tunnel. It's partially collapsed, and he ends up digging them out with his bare hands. With the Mountain and Jaime in hot pursuit, Ned suggests they break up into small bands to move more easily through the countryside and draw less attention. He wants Karlon to take the girls and leave himself with another party, but Sansa and Arya refuse to leave him. To avoid him slowing them down, Karlon carries him.

Despairing of reaching Riverrun before Tywin's host, Karlon and Ned instead decide to head north, hoping to meet Robb's host on the road. During the course of the journey, Ned and Karlon have a fatherly heart to heart. Karlon reveals he's terrified of his own power, and that if he gives in to his anger and starts killing he might not be able to stop, it's not fair for him to face ordinary men, etc. Ned tells him that life isn't fair, and sometimes good men have no choice, the man who passes the sentence, etc.

The Hound, overhearing this, confronts him, and tells him that he was fashioned to kill, and sooner later he'll give in and do it whether he wishes it or not, and generally mocks his ideals, but grows strangely quiet when Arya and Sansa find them in the dark, and leaves.

Karlon, riding ahead of the group, spots the Stark host, having just crossed the Green Fork, and rides to meet them. The Starks believed Ned was dead, and are overjoyed to have him back alive, if badly wounded and unable to join the fight himself. Karlon is suddenly unsure of what to do, when Ned calls him to join a council of his lords, and announces that he means to join House Stark and House Whent by marriage between Karlon and Arya.

A heated argument breaks out. The Northern lords (and Theon the little twerp) clamor for independence. Ned means to back Stannis, who is by law the rightful heir, but Renly has declared himself king and raised a host allied with the Tyrells.

I hadn't thought much beyond this point, other than to flash over to Essos, where Daenerys hears, through Jorah, that Robert Baratheon was killed by a dragon in human form, a man ten feet tall who can bend steel in his hands and kill with a stare.

[StarShaper7]

I'll probably never write this since I usually burn out after writing a single page of a story but:

All the anime studios are represented by anthropomorphic personifications of themselves in a high school slice-of-life/romantic comedy setting. The main character is Gainax-kun and he's the misunderstood intellectual who cannot complete his homework assignments on time because he works a part time job or maybe several part time jobs. He does this in order to make-up for the fact that his parents have cut off his allowance for not behaving in a socially acceptable manner i.e. he is not actively trying to be popular and tends to have outbursts in class where he speaks profundities that are lost on his classmates. Sort of like Daria from Daria if she were emotionally unstable. He's into sci-fi/mecha.

SPOILER: Show

Ghibli-san is the school bancho and he forces others to recycle and participate in eco-friendly activities. He is also popular and gets good grades. Underneath his tough guy persona he just wants his friends to live well and have a wonderful youth but also be prepared and knowledgeable about the world at large. He's good with both kids and adults. Old fashioned. And in the story he threatens to quit school all-together on several occasions to become a green warrior.

Production IG-chan is similar to Gainax-kun in that she's an outcast intellectual. She reads a lot of philosophical texts and is really into military and tech stuff. Has a fetish for robots. But she's a tsundere who cannot admit her true feelings for Gainax-kun and usually ends up debating him when he has his outbursts in class. "You speak with big words but they completely lack substance, pretentious baka!"

KyoAni-chan is really into romance stuff, the kind you'd seen in KyoAni anime, so she's constantly trying to set-up romantic situations for others in the class. She pairs them up and ships them in doujinshi she draws in a little journal. Some of them are same-sex. The journal is eventually found by Gainax-kun in a later part of the story. "Why don't you have a boyfriend yourself, KyoAni-chan?" the others will ask. She says something in reply that sets her up for later hijinks and embarrassment.

Shaft-chan is popular and likes to strike poses as if she were being photographed/filmed at all times. Dialogue with Gainax-kun and others consists of flirty/teasing exchanges with a few jokes thrown in. When caught off-guard she drops her airs and acts like all kawaii. "That was... surprisingly cool of you, Gainax-kun." Another thunder.

Studio Pierrot-kun (or some other studio that makes shonens) is the hot-blooded fighter. He acts like he's the main character ("Everyone, we can pass this test if we study together with the POWER OF NAKAMA!!" "Will KyoAni-chan ever notice me?") but he's really just comic relief. He gets confused for a pedo because of his super masculine appearance (he works out) and tendency to play pretend with little boys at the playground.

Bones-kun is Gainax-kun's only friend (at the beginning at least). He knows how to navigate the social waters and is capable of being popular but is really only interested in hanging out with Gainax-kun. This is because he thinks Gainax-kun is the only one with interesting things to say.

I can't really come up with personalities for other specific studios but I think there should be a pervy friend character played by some studio that produces otaku-pandering ecchi shows.

The ones that I have come up with are really just based on the exposure I've had of each studio. Gainax is pretty much just Evangelion/Anno, Ghibli is the Miyazaki movies that have environmental themes, Shaft is Madoka Magica and Bakemonogatari, etc.

[InstrumentalityOne]

I've been writing on this one for a year, tell me what you guys think of it:

Tentatively titled "Meet and Fuck Anime Convention"

It's based on the long running "Meet and Fuck" RPG game series I've been admiring for quite some time for its stellar writing and character arcs. Great stuff.

Meet n Fuck Kingdom experience video SFW

SPOILER: Show

Ken is a very special boy, he loves video games, music but the thing he loves the most is anime!

MAN I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY FOREVER! ANIME CON HERE I COME!

Ken says to himself as he licks off the cheeto dust of his fingers while logging off TV Tropes. Yes, today is indeed an important day! The day Ken has been waiting for all year! Actually, he hasn't left his room all year until today.

MOOOOOOM, CAN YOU DRIVE ME TO THE CONVENTION CENTER?

shouts Ken, as he takes a sip of his bottle of mountain dew. Equipped with money from the state and his mother, his mom drives him to the convention center. He ate another bag of Doritos on the way and rubbed the dust off on his good pair of khaki cargo shorts.

FUCK YOU MOM YOU CAN GO AWAY NOW!

belches Ken, as he adjusts his trilby, not a fedora, as it is commonly mistaken for and fixes his shoulder length hair into a beautiful pony tail, radiant as the red hot burning morning sun due to the grease in said hair. As his mother drives away while crying, Ken scouts the area like an eagle looking for its prey. Onlookers were intimidated at the mere sight of this man of great physique and manly pheromone-laden smell and fled as quickly as they could whenever they made eye contact. His XXL- sized "U MAD BRO?" t-shirt and leather trenchcoat blew in the wind with such greatness as is only expected from statues of great men like Napoleon or the Emperor of Austria.

As he stepped into the convention center with his sandals from target, he was awestruck by the huge amount of cosplayers!

HOLY COW! SO MANY BABES! I CANT EVEN DECIDE WHO I AM GOING TO MEET AND FUCK FIRST!

shouts Ken like nobody is around. Getting ready by slipping on his fingerless gloves, he heads to battle. He heads straight towards a Nee-yon Phil Collins Ivanczelion cosplayer, draped in red latex from head to toe. She had flowing blonde hair but Ken did not care for appearances anyway, as "every 3DPD is below me anyway".

HELLO! NICE SHOES MY NAME IS KEN

says Ken, as he suavely starts a conversation.
Ken lowers his voice to sound like someone who is not underaged and continues with

M'LADY?

Hi, my name is Jane, but you can call me Bitch, honey! I love your hat! Also I don't wear any shoes! You're funny.

said Bitch all the way while giggling. Ken knew he had it in the pocket, he didn't even take the time to smirk. With his piercing eyes he undressed her right then and there.

I'VE HAD BETTER BUT I GUESS YOU WILL HAVE TO DO

said Ken dismissively. Bitch got so wet that you could smell it in the air and said

KEN! PLEASE MAKE LOVE TO ME!

ALRIGHT BITCH BUT I HAVE TO CALL MY MOTHER TO DRIVE US TO MY PLACE FIRST

TO BE CONTINUED!

It's still under construction but I think it turned out well, what do you guys reckon?

[Guy Nacks]

I'll probably never write this since I usually burn out after writing a single page of a story but:

All the anime studios are represented by anthropomorphic personifications of themselves in a high school slice-of-life/romantic comedy setting. The main character is Gainax-kun and he's the misunderstood intellectual who cannot complete his homework assignments on time because he works a part time job or maybe several part time jobs. He does this in order to make-up for the fact that his parents have cut off his allowance for not behaving in a socially acceptable manner i.e. he is not actively trying to be popular and tends to have outbursts in class where he speaks profundities that are lost on his classmates. Sort of like Daria from Daria if she were emotionally unstable. He's into sci-fi/mecha.

SPOILER: Show

Ghibli-san is the school bancho and he forces others to recycle and participate in eco-friendly activities. He is also popular and gets good grades. Underneath his tough guy persona he just wants his friends to live well and have a wonderful youth but also be prepared and knowledgeable about the world at large. He's good with both kids and adults. Old fashioned. And in the story he threatens to quit school all-together on several occasions to become a green warrior.

Production IG-chan is similar to Gainax-kun in that she's an outcast intellectual. She reads a lot of philosophical texts and is really into military and tech stuff. Has a fetish for robots. But she's a tsundere who cannot admit her true feelings for Gainax-kun and usually ends up debating him when he has his outbursts in class. "You speak with big words but they completely lack substance, pretentious baka!"

KyoAni-chan is really into romance stuff, the kind you'd seen in KyoAni anime, so she's constantly trying to set-up romantic situations for others in the class. She pairs them up and ships them in doujinshi she draws in a little journal. Some of them are same-sex. The journal is eventually found by Gainax-kun in a later part of the story. "Why don't you have a boyfriend yourself, KyoAni-chan?" the others will ask. She says something in reply that sets her up for later hijinks and embarrassment.

Shaft-chan is popular and likes to strike poses as if she were being photographed/filmed at all times. Dialogue with Gainax-kun and others consists of flirty/teasing exchanges with a few jokes thrown in. When caught off-guard she drops her airs and acts like all kawaii. "That was... surprisingly cool of you, Gainax-kun." Another thunder.

Studio Pierrot-kun (or some other studio that makes shonens) is the hot-blooded fighter. He acts like he's the main character ("Everyone, we can pass this test if we study together with the POWER OF NAKAMA!!" "Will KyoAni-chan ever notice me?") but he's really just comic relief. He gets confused for a pedo because of his super masculine appearance (he works out) and tendency to play pretend with little boys at the playground.

Bones-kun is Gainax-kun's only friend (at the beginning at least). He knows how to navigate the social waters and is capable of being popular but is really only interested in hanging out with Gainax-kun. This is because he thinks Gainax-kun is the only one with interesting things to say.

I can't really come up with personalities for other specific studios but I think there should be a pervy friend character played by some studio that produces otaku-pandering ecchi shows.

The ones that I have come up with are really just based on the exposure I've had of each studio. Gainax is pretty much just Evangelion/Anno, Ghibli is the Miyazaki movies that have environmental themes, Shaft is Madoka Magica and Bakemonogatari, etc.

This sounds brilliant and needs to be put on television.