Disclaimer.
Characters from Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.
Characters from Captain Harlok belongs to Leiji Matsumoto
Characters from Totoro belongs to Studio Ghibli.
There is not enough originality in my bones create nearly anything as good as the above.
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Chapter 1: A somewhat scary beginning.
His name is Oh-Totoro, and he is waiting for someone. Who is it? Well, he does not exactly know until that person shows up. When that happens, Oh-Totoro would cry out "Hey! Look at me!", and they would meet. At least that's what he thinks will happen, but he's not really sure. Heck, he's not much sure about a lot of things, because he's only a few days old.
The first few days of his life were somewhat interesting. He didn't have a name then. He did not have much of anything. He was not even sure of where he first came from. All that he know was that it was dark.
Then he was moving. Then he stopped moving. Then he moved again. This happened a lot. Sometimes it was bumpy, sometimes it was not. Sometimes Oh-Totoro could hear voices, and other times there was this loud, rumbling sound.
Oh-Totoro stopped moving for the last time when suddenly there was a sound and then everything went bright. He felt someone grab him and panicked. He wanted to escape, but he could not move. Every thing else was a blur mainly because he was scared out of his mind at the time until he was placed on a ledge.
A few moments a hideous creature was placed next to him. It was brown, hideous, with beady eyes, claws and huge, gnashing teeth a that were currently bared. Oh-Totoro did the first first thing that first thing that came to his mind: He freaked out.
"Oh my gosh what are you!" said Oh-Totoro.
"Oh my gosh what are YOU? said the creature, who seemed equally freaked out.
This went on for a while, and gradually increased as more and more hideous and high strung creatures were placed on the ledge and joined the freak-a-long.
It finally ended when someone said "WILL YOU IDIOTS KNOCK IT OFF".
All heads turned to the source of the voice. It was another creature unlike what they have ever seen before. It was tall, mostly black, thin, and it look perturbed. Oh-Totoro wanted to panic again, but thought better of it. A moment later the creature spoke again.
"Finally! I swear! Every friggin' time..."
Oh-Totoro was not sure what that meant, but kept on listening. The black creature composed himself, and looked less perturbed, but was still not looking too friendly.
"My name is Harlock. Welcome to Ogata's Toy Shoppe!."
"Ogata's Toy Shoppe? What's that?" thought Oh-Totoro. Apparently, one of the creatures around him had the same thought and made it vocal. To this, the creature known as Harlock responded.
"Ogata is a person. He owns a toy shop, and all of you are toys. Oh-Totoros, to be more specific. Apparently there was a Miyazaki revival recently and Ghibli wanted to cash in some more--Oh Crap! I'm rambling again!"
Harlock sighed.
"Look. I know this a lot to take in right now, and you probably did not understand half the crap that I said, but I can't have all of you causing a commotion and bother the rest of the toys."
There was a chorus of "Amen"s and a few "You tell em Cap'n"s from all around them. Oh-Tototo looked around, and there were many creatures of different shapes everywhere. He did not freak out this time. But there was one question nagging in his mind.
"What are we doing here?" asked Da-Totoro, and to this, Harlock replied "You are waiting for somebody".
"Somebody?" asked Oh-Totoro, "Who would that be?"
"A child. Maybe a grownup. I'm not really sure. No one really knows until that someone appears. And when you find that someone a great joy will come upon you, and you will live with give comfort that person to the rest of your days. Does that answer your question?"
Oh-Totoro nodded. Somehow that fact that he will be spending the rest of his life with a special companion seemed to warm his heart.
"So I guess I'm stuck here for a while"
"Until your person comes..."
"On more thing", said Oh-Totoro who then pointed to the brown creatures.
"Do I have to stay next theses guys? The sort of creep me out"
Once again, Harlock sighed.
"I did say that all of you are Oh-Totoros, right".
Oh-Totoro nodded.
"Have you looked at yourself lately?"
"Looked at my self?", Oh-Totoro asked. "I don't think I've ever done that."
And then, Oh-Totoro tried to look at himself for the first time. He was brown and had claws...
"Do I have--"
"Yes you do."
To this, Oh-Totoro said "Oh". Somehow the brown creatures did not look too hideous anymore.
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Author's Notes:
Okay! First chapter done! Good lord that was like pulling teeth!
I've finally taken the plunge into the world of fanfiction and what better story to write than the one that I've been tooling with in my head for the longest time. It seemed so simple when it was in my head. I but when I tried to put it down on text, little what-ifs and why-woulds started popping in my head and I had to rewrite whole sections to make things more coherent.
This chapter was supposed to end with Oh-Totoro meeting his person, but I spent too much time trying to describe his first day of existence...maybe too much time. Oh well.
I guess I should also give credit to Dean Koontz, because it's his "Oddkins" that inspired me to have a toy as the protagonist and have that companionship thing be the driving force as well as the Fade, which I will talk about in later chapters. I read "Oddkins" a looooong time ago so I apologize if I get any of the concepts wrong.
Any constructive criticism is much appreciated. I've already plotted out major points of the story, so any suggestions on who Oh-Totoro's chosen one should be, but you're all welcome to guess.
Hint: I nearly called this fic "Rosebud". Hint #2: It's Kodachi, although that does sound intriguing. Hint #3: Think classic movies.
Next Chapter (If I ever get on with it): The Fade.
