Ranma Fairy Princess – Rough Draft Ch1 and Outline –

-While I would appreciate any constructive criticism on anything that I post in terms of both writing style and plot, for this piece (which I intend to start once I work out a bit more of the details), I really need advice on how to involve the Amazons. The story will remain mostly canon up to Jusenkyo, but the difference in curse is going to make involving the Amazons in a trial by combat a bit dicey. I suppose I could wing the canon Amazon encounter, but it doesn't seem quite right for this. So, while any comments on plotholes/places you think there could be improvement, I'm really looking for a realistic way to get those pesky Amazons involved.-

Disclaimer: Naturally, I own none of the characters or source materials used in this project. Ranma, etc are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and the various holders of its licenses. The details of the fairy realm, and specifically changeling lore, come primarily from Celtic mythology, though they have some basis in Germanic and Viking traditions. The most popular names for these characters come from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. This work is not for profit, just for fun.

Generalizations: As in Celtic tradition, the barriers between the otherworld (fairy realm) and the human realm are weakest on days reflecting the solar cycle, namely the solstices and equinoxes. Other days, especially Samhain (Halloween) are important days of power for the mythological creatures. The more powerful fey, such as Titania, Oberon and any others that get introduced later can easily cross the boundary regardless of day. They too will be much more powerful on the special days, however.

Chapter 1 – From familiar beginnings

"Speech"

panda signs

It was raining in Nerima, and the residents of this most unusual Tokyo ward were completely befuddled by the spectacle that greeted them on the street. Normally, this might have been the scene of savage combat between a beautiful redheaded girl and a panda, which would manage to attract at least a second glance from the jaded residents. However, the normally inflappable residents were shocked completely speechless. Granted, the panda was present, and was busily writing away on signs asking for the Tendo dojo. But what drew the bystanders attention was the vehement, multi-lingual profanity issuing from the small cage the panda carried which incongruously sounded like tinkling bells.

" Damn it!,*&&^#T! Oyaji, lemme outta this &*$(! cage or I'll &*&^#! your *&^ until you *&#( bleed to death. What the (*&#$ are you thinking, you know what iron does to me you *&#ity *#&^%ity *#&%!! What the hell are you locking me up for?!"

Silence, boy. We're going to meet your fiancée, at last Tendo, the schools will be joined! The panda bounded off down the street.

"What the hell do you mean fiancée Oyaji?" The tinkling voice shouted out, then muttered, "When Titania-momma finds out what you've done you'll be sorry. I wonder if panda-skin would look nice in my bathroom?"

-At the Tendo house-

[Insert complete canon scene between Tendo family prior to arrival. You know, the whole Soun yelling at the girls, Nabiki to the dojo, Akane scoffing, what do you mean you've never met him?!, etc. I left my copy of manga 1 at school while home for break, and since this is just an alpha to float a story idea, this will be added when I decide to pick this story up for real and have proper access to the source material]

*BRRrriiinng*

"That must be Ranma, I'll get it," Nabiki leapt to her feet and raced to open the front door.

"EEEEEEPP!!!" She sprinted back and hid behind her father. "Daddy," she whspered fearfully, "you don't happen to know why THERE'S A FREAKING PANDA AT THE FRONT DOOR DO YOU?"

"Damn it Oyaji, you're scaring em spitless," A honeyed voice drifted in from the entrance hall. "And lemme outta this *&#^ cage already."

The panda stalked into the room, and while the girls cowered behind their father, it held up a sign asking for hot water and slammed a small cage down onto the table. The small girl inside screamed out in agony as she bounced off the bars, as she started to burn wherever she had touched them. She then promptly passed out.

"Ano, fairy-san, are you alright?" A gentle voice disturbed Ranma's not quite consciousness.

"Owww," the fairy grumbled as she hesitantly opened her eyes to see three sets of eyes peering in at her. The first belonged to the speaker, and radiated peace and caring. The second had a disappointed gleam to them that made Ranma a bit nervous, and the third were just plain shocked. "I don't suppose any of you could get me out of here, could you?"

"Of course fairy-san," spoke the gentle voice once more, as the top of the cage was opened.

"It's just Ranma," replied the fairy, as she flew shakily out, giving the Tendo girls their first good look at her. She was just over four inches tall, with bright crimson hair and light blue eyes. She was quite shapely for her size, and was wearing a light green petal-skirted dress with a scooped neck and an open back, but what caught the eye were her wings, which were similar to butterfly wings. They were partially translucent and primarily the same shade of blue as her eyes with crimson swirls and appeared to glitter slightly.

"Oh my, I don't believe we've had a chance to introduce ourselves Ranma-chan. I am Kasumi, and these are my sisters Nabiki," she pointed to the disappointed, "and Akane," the shocked face.

"Hi there."

"You call this a fiancé daddy?" Nabiki ranted bit. "In case you didn't notice, SHE isn't even human!"

"Hey now, she's still a guest Nabiki," Akane recovered from her shock and turned to Ranma. "Hi, I'm Akane, do you want to be friends?"

Ranma's eyes lit up incredibly and she nodded once, jerkily. She surreptitiously cast a quick spell on herself to return to a somewhat normal height, though she would always be considered short and slight at a mere 4'11' with a willowy body that would have looked supernatural even without the wings.

[The rest of the stereotypical meet the Tendo scene after I get back home to my copy of the manga, I'd like to do everything right by canon for it]

-End Prologue-

On with the AN business, which is unfortunately much longer than this intro chapter. I apologize and will attempt to avoid this in the future, but as I need a good bit of help figuring out exactly where to take this story, I wanted to post my general thoughts for review. I will currently not be focusing on this piece, as I need to work a lot of kinks out of it before writing it in earnest. Help of course would be appreciated.

Tenative timeline

Age 6 Spring: Ranma meets Ukyo. Genma drags Ranma off to begin Neko-ken training.

Age 6 Summer Solstice: The day that Ranma actually learns the Neko-ken, he is found by Titania while she and members of her court celebrate the dawn of summer at a fairy ring. She brings him out of it and heals him of his wounds with a powerful infusion of fairy magic. In essence, she adopts him as her changeling. However, Genma steals Ranma back from her.

The story then follows the canon up to Jusenkyo, but with the added complication that Titania-momma and her court track Ranma, keep him healed, and sporadically visit him/smuggle him information while Genma is drunk or spelled asleep. However, Ranma is not ready to return to the fairy realm, as he still cares somewhat for his father and requires more magic infusions to become a full-blooded fairy. Titania sees to those personally, when she steals him from Genma on the 8 days of power for the fey.

When Ranma falls in the Nyannichuan, the transformative powers of Jusenkyo mix with his fairy magic, transforming her into a female fairy. Ranma completely flips out, though he's not as misogynistic as he is in canon thanks to the fairies. He has problems with size though, because as a fairy, she is only 6-8 inches tall. After chasing Genma and running away, Ranma meets Titania again, who teaches her how to resume her normal size. Hot water turns Ranma into a male form, but it is noticeably harder to turn Ranma male than Genma due to the interaction of fairy magic with the jusenkyo curse. I'm thinking about having Jusenkyo being the result of a major battle involving fey people, so it is very strong fairy based magic. Incidentally, Ranma will be far weaker and far faster as female than she is even in canon, and her ability to wield fairy magics will be much better as female than male. The male form will be normal canon Ranma as he was at the start of the series.

Kasumi may or may not be a changeling too, or some other character. Nodoka will have the ability to pierce glamour, and possibly Cologne/Happosai and definitely the Kunos. "Oh my fairy princess, let me free thee from the dark sorcerer Saotome and you can fly (quite literally) into my embrace!" or "Vile abomination, how dare you ensnare my Ranma-sama with your magics," Kodachi attacked with an iron infused ribbon.

Much of the story will follow the Ranma canon, because in general it is a fun storyline. Eventually though it will move primarily into the fairy realm, with possible crossovers to other universes. I'm not sure if I'd follow a forgotten realms sort of universe, but I do like the possibility of using all of those races in the otherworld.

The story would end with Ranma fully adjusting to life as a fairy, and possibly offering to have Nodoka/Kasumi turned to fey as well.

Assuming I ever finished the story, I'd possibly continue with side stories in which Ranma travels the multi-verse a bit. Below is the basic idea for that.

At any rate, this is a general outline for a story I might pick up if there is any interest. I'm looking for advice on the plausibility of the timeline I've stated above. As the plot moves forward, the backstory will be revealed in a series of flashbacks or explanations. For example, I'd introduce the fairy information as an aside to Kasumi by Ranma, and as the events in the Ranma universe progress, more backstory would slowly come out.

Any advice/opinions would of course be appreciated, especially on how to involve the Amazons. I really want to keep the majority of the background up to Jusenkyo as canon as possible, which shouldn't be too hard, even with extra involvement. However, at Jusenkyo, I'm radically diverging, though I still want the amazons involved. The problem is that I have *absolutely* no clue on how to bring them into the story in a reasonable manner.

If/When I finish this story (which is of course predated by when I choose to actually start it rather than outline it), I would possibly consider continuations involving crossovers to other magic-heavy stories. However, that is so far out that it isn't really worth considering.