newnumber6 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
newnumber6) wrote2007-08-05 04:11 pm
newnumber6) wrote2007-08-05 04:11 pm
Works in Progress Meme, 2/3 (LONG)
2) Fanfic. This includes some straight fanfic (mostly Sliders, a few Star Trek scripts-in-progress), and a few cracky crossovers (Quantum Leap/Early Edition, Quantum Leap/X-Files, Sliders/Gargoyles, My So-Called Life/Buffy (not technically a crossover, more of a conceptual crossover))), and a few comic works or works based on RPG characters. (Almost all of this is technically 'more than 5 years ago, probably more than 10', but it merits a separate section):
I'll start off with two attempts to write up some of my RP characters in fiction.
First up, Chris, my mutant character who could leave his own body in a 'ghost form':
-
He lied down comfortably, paying no attention to the cramped space,
or to anything else. He felt himself sitting up, then standing, but there
was no weight, not even the weight of his own body, pressing down on him.
He felt his features change, taking on the appearance of an old man, and he
walked out of his home. There was no door, but to Chris, the wall didn't
really exist, or perhaps he didn't exist, as far as the wall was concerned.
Chris walked slowly, taking his time through the mall even though it was
the dead of night.
-
Next up, Anne, a character who would automatically erase the memories of anybody who saw her, 5 seconds after they stopped looking at her. The excerpt chronicles part of the
day her powers manifested the first time:
-
Some time later, it must have been ten or fifteen minutes, I went to the kitchen to get some juice.
There, I saw Dad. He was making a sandwich, which wasn't
unusual; he often skipped lunch and never ate breakfast, so he usually
ate something between getting home and dinner. What was unusual was
that I startled him. When he saw me, he flinched and dropped a mustard-
covered knife on the floor.
"Nice move," I said.
He just looked at me, squinting a little. "Uh, what are you
doing in here?"
As I got the glass, I showed it to him, and got to the fridge.
He was silent as I poured my drink, just staring at me. It was
beginning to creep me out.
Finally, he said, "But who are you? What are you doing in
my house?"
I rolled my eyes and started to walk away from him. "Not
funny, dad."
"I'm not kidding. You'd better explain yourself before I
called the police."
I went back to my room, slamming the door behind me. It
irritated me. My dad was always doing stupid little jokes, but
they usually weren't this bad.
I heard his footsteps coming down the hall towards my room,
and I figured he was coming to apologize, but then they faded out
again as he walked back to the living room.
-
Next let's move on to a couple attempts to write for Star Trek. Since they had their famous 'open submissions' policy for script, I got it into my head to try and write one on a number of occasions, but true to my usual pattern, I never finished.
First, one for DS9: "Heretics"
-
Vedek Teliko is addressing an increasingly unruly crowd.
VEDEK TELIKO
Everything we have done
for Bajor, we have done
ourselves, and given up
credit to the Prophets.
ODO arrives on the scene, and approaches Kira and Sisko.
ODO
What's going on?
SISKO
We're not quite sure. She
just went up to speak, and
started this...
KIRA
(interrupting)
Blasphemy.
ODO
Well, if someone doesn't
stop her, she's going to
start a riot.
SISKO
She has a right to speak
her mind. We can't just
stop her for no reason.
KIRA
Watch me.
Kira begins to move forward, but is stopped by:
SISKO
Major!
(to Odo)
Take her into protective
custody for the time being.
-
Here's a bit of a Star Trek Voyager script, called Pawns. This part of the script actually isn't related to the plot, it's just part of the teaser to introduce the episode. The plot would have been about a civilization in VR storage (yeah, I was really into VR), but who didn't know it. They sent a distress call accidentally by 'praying' in the right way to trigger the communications routines. When Voyager answers and investigates, Tom Paris is hooked into it, but can't get out. They eventually send the Doctor in to liason and they use 'cheat codes' inside the program to use 'magic' and save the day from whatever problem the people were having. But again, the excerpt has nothing to do with that:
-
TUVOK and PARIS are sitting by a table, playing 3D Chess.
TUVOK
(moves his piece)
Checkmate. Again.
PARIS
(annoyed)
I'm really starting to get sick of this game.
TUVOK
There are other games to choose from. You were the one who suggested Chess.
PARIS
We could always play a variant on Chess.
TUVOK
A variant? Which do you have in mind?
PARIS
Ever heard of 'Kamakazie Chess'?
TUVOK
I'm not familiar with it.
PARIS
I used to play it with a friend at the Academy. The object of the game is to
lose all of your peices before the other player.
TUVOK
You win by losing all of your peices first? That isn't... logical.
0
PARIS
If one of your peices can take one of mine, it must, and vice versa. What do
you say?
TUVOK
(thinking)
If the object of the game is to lose, you would have a distinct advantage over
me. At any rate, our next shift starts in 5 minutes, we will have to start
our game another time.
-
Finally (for the Treks), another DS9 script with the title Salem One. For those really big trek geeks reading this, Salem One was once given by Picard as an example of a sneak attack that led to a bloody war. In my script, I was going to expand on it and say it triggered the first war with Cardassia. It was my attempt to plough new ground on the whole 'Trek Time Travel' plot - It would have the Defiant thrust back in time to just before the Salem one attack. They discover that at the same time, another Defiant has also been sent back by the same accident. This Defiant is from a universe where the Salem One attack never occured, and so the war with Cardassia never happened.
After initial confusion, the two groups realize that for each of them, in order to secure the future they know, they have to do two mutually exclusive things. Either prevent the attack, or allow it to go forward, and so, although they both talk first, they will eventually have to fight or one of their whole future will be destroyed.
Anyway, here's the excerpt:
-
INT. ALTERNATE DEFIANT
SISKO ALTERNATE is at his chair. O'BRIEN ALTERNATE is working
under a console, trying to repair it. A male trill, DAX ALTERNATE
is at an equivalent position of Dax on our Defiant. There is also
a Cardassian, GLINN ARACK.
SISKO ALTERNATE
How is it coming, O'Brien?
O'BRIEN ALTERNATE
I think that will do it, Captain.
We should be able to access our
sensors now.
O'Brien Alternate gets up from the console and moves to Dax
Alternate's. Dax Alternate reads the display.
DAX ALTERNATE
There's a ship in front of us.
SISKO ALTERNATE
Is it a Jem'Hadar ship?
DAX ALTERNATE
No sir. It looks to be a vessel
of Federation design. In fact,
it's design matches our own.
SISKO ALTERNATE
Hail them.
On the viewscreen, our Sisko appears. He appears somewhat startled
to see himself.
SISKO ALTERNATE
Ready all weapons, it seems we've
got Founders.
SISKO
Wait... we're not the Founders.
Sisko Alternate mouths mute to Glinn Arack. He does.
SISKO ALTERNATE
How close does their ship match
our own?
DAX ALTERNATE
It's nearly identical from what
I can tell, right down to their
offensive capabilities.
SISKO ALTERNATE
I don't think even the Founders
would be able to match us that
exactly in so short a span of
time. Keep looking for anything
out of the ordinary. In the
meantime, are there any other
possibilities?
GLINN ARACK
The anomaly we encountered might
not have been the wormhole from
Dominion space we'd been looking
for. It could have been some
other type of naturally occuring
anomaly.
-
Now, let's move on to Sliders Fanfic. For a long time, I was big into writing Sliders
fanfic. I actually finished some, even, and if you knew where to look, you could probably still find some floating around on the net. But there was plenty I didn't
finish.
First up, a bit from a story I was going to do in a participatory 'Virtual 4th Season', when the real 4th season was in doubt. Since this story was due to be in the middle of the season somewhere, some things don't entirely make sense. Arturo is back (in the virtual 4th season they would have been joined by a double of him who got lost sliding on his own). The story was to be called The Final Argument of Kings involving a California which had seceeded from the USA:
-
"Mr. Brown, I find it hard to believe you've slid to as many
worlds as you claim, and you've still failed to grasp the simple fact
that different worlds have different tastes. It's probably quite
popular here."
Wade turned and walked backwards so she could face the others
as she added, "Yeah, remember back on Igloo Earth?"
"That was different Wade. You could peel off the fish fillet
strips if you wanted to, and besides, we were there long enough that
the guy knew we weren't too fond of them."
Wade faced forward again, then said, "There's Quinn and
Maggie."
"How was the pizza?" Quinn asked when they caught up, as he
wadded up the wrapping for his burger and tossed it in the trash.
"Don't ask, Q-ball," Rembrandt said. "Don't even ask."
"I warned you that you should have come with us," Maggie said,
smiling smugly.
Quinn pulled the timer out of his pocket and checked the
display. "Well, say goodbye to this Earth," he said as the display
counted down their last few seconds.
As usual, the vortex opened from a beam of light, spewed out
of the timer when the button was pushed. It coalesced into a
whirlpool of white and blue and black at a level that allowed them to
walk into it.
One by one, the five ran in before it closed behind them.
They flew, or were rather swept, down the interdimensional tunnel. It
was like a waterslide with no water, only wisps of light.
When they came out, they were on another world, and almost
fell into one huge pile. "I must say," Arturo said, sliding out from
Rembrandt, "Sliding was a lot easier when there was only two of us.
Now there is four times the chance to get hit." He thought of his
former companion, Bennish, and smiled. Bennish hit him on every one
of their slides together, but it was always accidental and he was
almost getting used to it.
-
Next up was from one I called Faces:
-
They headed for the nearest path, a few feet away, and
followed it for a while. Wade nudged Quinn and pointed down to the
left. "Hey, Quinn, look. A pool. Why don't you take your shirt off
and go for a swim to cool off?" She barely finished before Rembrandt,
only able to hold it in for a second, let out a small burst of
laughter. Arturo also chuckled lightly.
Quinn tried to smile indulgently. "Oh, come on, would you
give it a rest? How was I supposed to know I'd be arrested for
indecent exposure when I took off my shirt?"
"Lets see. A hundred degrees in the shade, and everyone's
wearing t-shirts into the ocean," Rembrandt said, still grinning,
before adding sarcastically, "Yeah, I guess there'd just be no way to
have known."
"Hey, we've all made cultural mistakes before, Remmy."
"He's right," Arturo said. "Need we remind you of when..."
"Okay, okay," Rembrandt said before he could finish. "I get
your point. We were just having a little fun, that's all."
"And after we spent half our savings bailing him out on that
last world," Wade said, "we're entitled to at least one joke about
it."
As they talked, they continued down the path, and spotted an
exit from the park by an area where picnic tables were set up, and
people ate their lunch.
"Say," Rembrandt said, "you guys notice anything about the
people here?"
Quinn looked around. "They all look to be in their twenties?"
"There's something more," said Arturo. "Look at those two
women over there."
"The twins?" asked Wade.
"Yes... don't they both look strikingly like that actress,
Julia Roberts?"
"Yeah," Rembrandt agreed. "And look, over there's another
one, sitting with the Kathy Ireland lookalike."
A woman walking a dog passed them from behind. "That one's a
ringer for Brooke Shields," Quinn observed. "You know, this is almost
eerie."
"Almost? There's another over there," Arturo pointed out with
a nod of his head.
"Oh, no, don't tell me," Wade said, in feigned fear. "Someone
on this world has been cloning supermodels?"
"Hallelujah," Rembrandt breathed, and Wade hit him lightly
across the chest with the back of her hand.
Quinn grinned. "It's not just the women. Look, there's Clint
Eastwood. We have about a week on this world. Plenty of time to find
out about these clones, if that's what they are."
"Not clones, exactly," the Professor said. "If they were
clones, I'd think they'd be about the same height. Of course,
environmental factors might conceivably play a role in that, but there
are other minute differences... things I can't quite put my finger
on." He shrugged.
"Let's find the Dominion," Wade suggested.
When they got out of the park, they noticed the trend
continued. Roughly one out of every ten people they saw looked, to
one degree or another, like someone who was famous on their world.
What's more, more than half looked to be in their early twenties.
-
The plot was that the Sliders landed on a world where people routinely had their faces sculpted to match celebrities. Rembrandt Brown, although slightly famous, was
assumed to be just a person with his face. Can't remember the other plot, but
there was something about Quinn's double being an actor who hadn't sold the rights
to his face, or something.
Next up, one called Live and Direct:
-
Quinn sighed. "We can't worry about that right now. What
about this guy? Should we tell him where to contact us?"
Arturo took a glance back at Wayne, who appeared to be taking
an interest in the architecture. "Assuming he was telling the truth
about the laws on this world, it might be safer to give false names so
he won't be suspicious, and then simply hole up until we Slide.
Unless of course, you want this world to find out we're visitors from
another dimension."
The others smiled. "I don't think that would be a good idea,"
Wade said.
The group broke and Quinn stepped closer to Wayne. "Okay, so
what do you want to know?"
"Just give me your names, and a place where I can get in touch
with you."
"My name is Jim Hall," Quinn said. The name worked before,
after all. He motioned to Wade, then the Professor, and finally
Rembrandt, as he introduced, "This is Dr. Juliet Jones, Dr. Maxwell
St. John, and Dr. Bill Stark."
"Okay, and where will you be staying?"
"The Dominion Hotel," Rembrandt offered. Wayne nodded.
Quinn asked, "So, can we go then?"
"I've got all I need. We'll be in touch."
Rembrandt breathed a sigh of relief, despite himself, and the
group headed down the street.
Wayne could hear the light clicking of a keyboard over his
headset, then his voice said, "I checked them out... they're lying all
right. There's no one with those names who fit their description in
the database. The closest Dominion Hotel is down in 'Frisco, so
you might want to find out where they're really headed."
"Don't worry, I'm on it... if what we overheard was true, we
can't afford to let it slip by."
"If what we overheard is true," the voice added, "we all
better be getting a raise. The story of the century, and it's an
election week!"
Wayne turned the dial on the camera again, and pointed the
microphone towards the departing group.
"Juliet Jones?" he heard the woman say.
"Sorry, Wade. It was the first name I could think of."
"Well. At least you made me a doctor." They chuckled.
Rembrandt looked over towards a fast food place. "Hey, you
guys think we have enough in the budget to get a bite to eat?"
"An excellent suggestion, Mr. Brown," Arturo said. The others
nodded their assent, and the group entered the small eatery.
Wayne spoke into his headset. "They've just gone into Burger
Palace. That's owned by Network Eight, right? We'll have to catch up
with them on the way out. Get on the line to the Media Affairs Court.
We need an interview subpeona for these people before someone beats us
to it."
-
I was also going to have them asked at their interview, during a commercial break. "We'd appreciate if you not use the term 'Sliders'. That's what Network Ten's fast food place calls its burgers, and we don't want any cross-promotion."
FYI, I used the general idea of Live and Direct as part of my What I'd Do With... Sliders post.
Now, before we move onto cracky crossovers, one last Sliders fic, with a bit of a twist. One of the Sliders fics I finished was called, I think Surrogate Lives, and involved them landing on a world where everybody _but_ Quinn was lost sliding. He offered them the chance to stay on his world while he took their timer to look for his friends. They declined of course, but I had an idea for a sequel, or rather, a series of sequels. In them, that Quinn would assemble a new team with a new plan and go Sliding to try and recover the people he lost. The series was to be called Quinn's Redemption. I never actually finished the first part, so here's a bit of that:
-
"That was," Kelley started, catching her breath. "That was...
amazing."
"Yeah," Wing said. "We should do some work to improve those
landings, though."
"Where are we?" Kelley asked.
"We're at the same place we were before," Quinn explained.
"Only on this world, the room must be just for storage."
"Hey," Bennish said, grabbing a shoe to push himself off the
floor with. "What happened to the music?" He took the headphones off
his ears. "Guess on this world my favorite station is all-news."
"What's going on in this world?" Kelley asked.
Bennish put the headphones back on. "Some sort of summit
between the Soviets and the Americans." His head tilted to one side
with some curiosity, then took the headphones off again. "Looks like
its between President Colin Powell and Somebody Hard-to-pronounce-ski.
They've just gone to a commercial break."
"What do you say we get out of here," Wing suggested.
The door was in the same place as in their lab and, though
locked, opened from the inside. It was sunny out in this world, which
contrasted to the overcast sky they woke up to on their home world.
"Do you think they might be here?" Kelley asked.
"Well, we're not going to find out just standing here,"
Bennish said.
"Let's split up into two groups," Quinn said. "We'll meet
back here in four hours to check in, and in seven and a half for the
slide. Okay?"
"Sounds good," Bennish checked his watch, then turned to
Kelley and asked, "So, you want to be in my group?"
Wing, noting Kelley's doubtful look, put a hand on Bennish's
shoulder, shaking his head with an apologetic smile. "Come on. We'll
take the university. I figure if Professor Arturo would go to anyone
for help, it'd be himself."
Quinn nodded. "Kelley and I will check out the library, and
see if we can find anything on the Internet. If worst comes to worst,
we'll try to find other doubles on this world." He reached into his
pocket and pulled out a small black box, then tossed it to Wing.
"Just in case."
Wing nodded. "Happy hunting, Mallory."
As they split up, Quinn could overhear Bennish's fading voice
saying optomistically, "I think she likes me." If Kelley heard it
too, she gave no sign.
"What was that you gave Wing?" she asked.
"It's our backup plan. If they have to miss the Slide, they
can activate that, and we should be able to lock onto them back home."
"That's helpful."
"Yes. There's only one problem. When we tested it last, it
took us two full days of nonstop searching before we found it. That's
why its only a last resort. We don't know how long it might take
before we're able to get back, and if someone's in trouble enough to
miss the meeting, they might not be able to wait for us to pick them
up." He clenched his jaw, then added under his breath, "But I'm not
losing anyone else."
-
The Sliding crew, aside from Quinn, were all minor Sliders characters- Wade's sister Kelly, and two of Quinn's classmates, Wing, and Conrad Bennish Jr, one of my favorite characters on the show. I did have the whole series roughly plotted out. It was intended to be something like 6 stories, with one after they recovered their friends where the Kromaggs come to their world. Since they weren't 'lost' but had a home base, it would also focus a bit on their own lives. Wing, after discovering (in this story) that his double was engaged to a university acquaintence, would look her up on his world. The world in the first adventure was on the brink of World War with Russia, and Bennish was mistaken for a commie spy (because his fingerprints matched a soldier who was at that moment on an aircraft character)
Okay, so let's move onto Cracky Crossover Time. To smooth the transitions, the first is a crossover with Sliders again. Sliders crossed with Gargoyles, the cartoon:
-
Arturo stepped away from the group, intruiged by something on
the other side of the roof. Wade was the first to notice him
wandering off, and nudged Quinn and Rembrandt. Quinn called out,
"What is it, Professor? You see something?" They began to approach
him.
He was examining a large stone statue, a gargoyle. It looked
larger than any human, and was crouched in a pose that reminded Arturo
of that bronze statue of The Thinker, the most notable difference
being the large wings at its back. It was in the center of the west
side of the roof, looking out on the city. Beside it, there was
another, this one distinctly female. It looked almost ready to come
to life and pounce off the roof like a jungle cat. On the other side
of the large male was another statue, this one resembling more a large
hippo, but with webbed ears and stone claws as paws. This third one
had no wings whatsoever. They looked incredibly well-done and life-
like. "Unless these are a recent addition, I'd say this isn't home,"
Arturo said. He saw the looks of disappointment on the faces of the
others. "Don't lose hope, this still could be. For all we know these
were added in the last month or so. In fact," he said, glancing at
the feet of the statues, "I'm not even sure if they're attached."
It was still a blow to their hopes, though, and they said
nothing. "They look awfully creepy, though," Rembrandt said, looking
at the statues.
"I don't know, this middle guy looks kind of majestic. Almost
noble, even," Quinn said with a smirk.
Wade sat down cross-legged on the ledge, looking out over the
horizon. "Look, the sun's about to go down."
Arturo glanced about. "Well, I suppose we had better book a
room, then. Let's be off."
"What's the rush, Professor?" Wade said. "Can't we just do
something normal like sit and watch the sun go down for once? Anyway,
I'm sure we'd all like to catch our breath a bit more from the last
world."
Arturo smiled gently, like a father to a child. "Alright, if
you insist, although I must say it's quite overrated." He walked over
to the ledge and watched.
-------
Stairwell, Dominion Hotel
San Francisco
A minute before sunset
Detective Elisa Maza climbed the stairs to the roof. Almost
time for the guys to wake up, she thought to herself as she neared the
top. Some subconscious feeling caused her to stop for a moment. When
she did, very faintly she heard... voices. It was too early for
sunset, she knew, which meant someone must have been on the roof.
Running quickly and in a panic, she burst through the door onto the
roof. No one was there, so she turned towards the other side of it,
where her friends were perched for the day, and saw four strangers.
Two of them were sitting on the ledge beside her friends, and the
other two were standing behind, looking onto the city.
"Hey!" she called out, "What are you doing up here?"
One of the two on the ledge, a short-haired young woman of
about twenty years of age, called back, "Just watching the sunset..."
The others had turned to her. She could see in their eyes some fear,
anxiety... maybe even guilt. Her cop-instinct was usually pretty good
at picking it up.
Right now, however, she didn't have time. "Well, you can't do
it here... I'm going to have to ask you to get off." She pulled her
badge out of the pocket of her red jacket, and showed it to them. She
was NYPD, and so had no real authority here, but hoped they wouldn't
question it.
-
Next up, a bit from a Quantum Leap/Early Edition crossover fic I started:
-
He turned to her. She wasn't looking at him, just straight down
at the bar with a vacant expression. She looked down at the dog by her
legs and realized she was blind. "Good morning," he replied pleasantly.
"You all right?" she asked.
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, you just seem to carry yourself
differently. Usually I know you're coming by the way you walk. It's
just different somehow." She shrugged again. "So, what's in the paper
today?"
He looked down under his arm at the paper, then unfolded it. It
was probably a ritual they had, him reading her the paper every morning.
He just wished he knew her name.
"Uh, well, the state's considering a new crime bill."
"That hardly seems urgent." Sam nodded. Just then, he heard
a wooshing sound. He turned to see Al stepping out of the Imaging
Chamber door. Today, Al wore an orange shirt with a silvery tie, and a
brownish vest on top. And of course, his hat and cigar.
"Sam, I've got some information for you... it's not much, but
it's a start," Al said.
Sam nodded, then looked at Marissa. "Could you excuse me for
a minute, I have to go to the washroom." She nodded.
Al pointed him towards the washroom, which was good because it
would have raised questions if he had to ask the way himself.
Once they were inside, Al looked at his handlink and said, "Well,
first of all, your name is Gary Hobson, and you're in Chicago."
"I know. I also know it's October 15th, 1997."
Al shook his head. "No, it's the 14th."
"No, it's the 15th," Sam insisted.
"Ziggy says it's the 14th."
Sam raised the paper so Al could see. "Well, the paper says
it's the 15th."
"Maybe it's a misprint," Al suggested. Sam just looked at him,
and he relented. "Okay, okay, maybe Ziggy's made a mistake." There was
a high-pitched whine from the handlink, but Al ignored it. He was about
to continue but Sam interrupted.
"We're in 1997, Al. That's after I first leaped. Has that ever
happened before?"
"No," Al admitted. "But there's really nothing preventing it.
We just figure it doesn't happen very often because it's hard to get
the data we need." He pressed a few buttons on the handlink and
continued. "Anyway, our best estimate is that you're here because on
October 15th, 1997, Gary Hobson died."
"You think."
"Ziggy says there's only a 50-50 chance."
"Only 50% chance? That sure sounds like what I'm supposed to
change."
Al shook his head. "No, Ziggy doesn't think there's a 50-50
chance that's what you're here to do. There's a 50-50 chance that Gary
Hobson died."
"How can that be, Al?"
Al shrugged. He looked as perplexed as Sam was. "I don't know.
Ziggy says there's this weird double-vision in the records. At the same
time, the newspaper for this day reports that he dies, and doesn't mention
him at all. We get a file that Ziggy claims both says he's deceased, and
still living in 1999."
"Strange. Maybe I'm changing things just by being here?" Sam
asked.
"That's a possibility," Al said. "Maybe it's because there's
something Mr. Hobson does that you wouldn't, and so you just have to
wait it out."
Sam nodded. "So, what else do you have?"
"Not much. Mr. Hobson was helpful up to a point, but then he
clammed up. Dr. Beeks thinks he's into something dangerous, maybe
illegal."
"Criminal record?"
"He's been arrested a number of times in the past year, but
never been charged with anything. Before that, he was a model citizen.
Just over a year ago, he got divorced, then quit his job. He was out
of work and living in a hotel for about a year, then a month or so ago
he got this bar. From what we've been able to gather, it was a gift."
Al looked up. "A little suspicious, if you ask me. Anyway, his
partner's name is Chuck Fishman, and I think the woman you were sitting
with is Marissa Clark. They're his best friends."
"Anything on them?"
"Nothing we can dig up. Chuck moves to Hollywood in a few
months, and Marissa takes over management of the bar not long after
that."
-
One of the points of the plot was that Gary would still keep getting the paper even while he was in the future, and so would be able to prevent a disaster at Quantum Leap headquarters. Although I didn't quite figure out how, which might have been part of the reason I didn't finish the story.
Since Quantum Leap was ripe for crossovers, that wasn't the only one I tried. Here's a bit of a Quantum Leap/X-Files Crossover:
-
Gawd, it makes me CRAZY when you're a girl. Aw
geez... gonna have to see Dr. Beeks again..." Al hated it whenever Sam leapt
into a woman, especially a pretty one. The nature of his link allowed him to
somehow see both Sam and his borrowed aura simultaneously.
"AL!! WHY am I here?!"
"Oh yeah." Al consulted the small electronic box in his hand. "It's April
25, 1994. Ziggy's already throwing a fit because the date's so close to your
first leap date. Your name is Dana Scully. *DR.* Dana Scully. Age 27...
yumm...I mean um... You're a field agent with the FBI in Washington D.C. Have
been for five years. But for the past year you've been assigned to some special
unit called `X-Files'."
"X-FILES? What's THAT?"
The hand link flashed as Al punched some entries into it's keyboard. He
frowned, took a cigar out of his breast pocket, popped it in his mouth, tried
again. The unit squawked... flashed... Al hit slapped his palm against it's
side in frustration. "Damnmit Ziggy! What do you mean `classified'? NOTHING
is THAT classified!"
Sam felt a sudden chill down his back, like trickle of icy water. Even WITH
his swiss-cheesed memory, he KNEW something was wrong. A distant part of him
remembered he'd built Ziggy, and that this was something that SHOULDN'T be
happening.
"AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaal..... ????"
"Damn piece of cybernetic junk." Al growled, the cigar clenched in his
teeth. "You're gonna..." As the hand link's flashing & squawking became more
frenzied, the colour of his language escalated to match it.
Suddenly there was a burst of light. Flailing, Al fell backwards through the
office wall, out of Sam's sight. Sam watching the spot for a few moments,
waiting for Al to come back, before he was interrupted.
"Hey, what are you doing, there?" said a voice behind Sam.
He swung round to see a slim man with dark hair in a charcoal grey suit.
Even, regular features... a kind face. But something else. Something in his
EYES...
-
In this fic, Mulder would have been able to see Al, but Sam and he would figure it out early on and so have to be very careful about where they talked. Mulder would gradually learn the truth that Scully had been replaced.
Finally, it was hardly an original idea, but I liked it when I thought about it. I always used to like My So Called Life, and since I also liked Buffy, I once thought about how it might be cool if, in an alternate reality, either after Buffy died once or instead of Buffy (depending on how the timeline worked out, I can't remember exactly), Angela Chase was chosen as the next Vampire slayer. So I wrote up a little bit of a script for that, called (again, with stunning originality) 'The So-Called Vampire Slayer':
-
Katimsky: And just remember, those (short pause) reports are due on
(longer pause) Monday. (points to Angela) Angela Chase, can you stay
for a little after class?
(She seems surprised, but resigned. Katimski waits for everybody to
leave, then closes the door.)
Angela (nervously): So, what did you want to talk about?
Katimsky: I need to talk to you about... (pause, scratches head) gee whiz,
how do you say something like this. I thought I'd have more... (pause)
time.
Angela: Wait, is this about Ricky?
Katimsky (smiles): Enrique? No, this has nothing to do with him. It's
about you. You see (pause) there's one girl, in all the world who is
(pause) Chosen.
Angela: What, did I win a contest or something?
Katimsky: No, no, no... would you just listen for a moment. There's one
girl in all the world, and she's the slayer. When one slayer falls,
the next is called. It's a sacred duty.
Angela (VO): I had no idea what he was talking about, so I just stood
there and nodded, hoping that once he made whatever metaphorical point
he was trying to, I could go. (She nods)
Katimsky (getting frustrated): We didn't think it would happen so soon,
and we knew you were a possibility, but we weren't sure until today
when you were (he scratches his head again and pauses) called. You're
the Vampire Slayer.
Angela (VO): I never thought I'd hear the word Vampire in a conversation
like, with an adult. Especially not from a teacher.
Angela: What?
Katimsky: You're a Vampire Slayer. *The* Vampire Slayer. Most people think
vampires are (medium pause) fictional. But they're not. They're a form of
demon, inhabiting a human body. And it's your duty to hunt them down and
(long pause) slay them.
Angela: You're kidding me, right?
Katimsky (getting slightly more annoyed): No, I'm not kidding. You have
to be ready, Angela. If not... (sees the bandage on her hand) what happened
to your hand?
Angela (defensive, putting it behind her back): I cut it on some glass this
morning.
Katimsky: This morning? It should be healed by now. (Angela looks at
him strangely) Well, go on, don't take my word for it. (waves his hands
at her nervously) Take a look.
Angela (now getting a bit freaked out, and making an excuse): Um, I like
have Soc next... and, like, Mr. Demitri said something about a quiz, so,
I'd better go.
Katimsky (upset, waving a hand at her): Go, go. Your studies are important.
(as she starts to leave) But Angela, this isn't the end of this. I want
you to come see me sometime during lunch. (taps his desk lightly) I'll
be... (pause) right here. And you can't talk about this, it's important.
(she gives him a look, then leaves. Katimsky sighs, putting his hands
through his hair) I'm not good at this.
-
And, before we leave off fanfic style stuff completely, for fun I toyed with writing a Mutant Book. It would have included Anne and Chris. The first issue would have been called "The Night I Died", with the meaning (metaphorical, literal, etc) of that phrase being different for each character. So here's a little bit of it (ignore the fact that there are a huge amount of panels):
-
(Pg 1: One establishing page (of maybe 5 panels) of a friday dismissal
from classes.
Pg2/3: Friday night.
Panel 1:
Caption (Nora's Thoughts): There was a party that night I died. I mean,
we were on our way to one.
A boy's driving in his car with a girl (NORA). They're
talking about classes.. it's the first weekend after school started.
Nora: "..and Mr. Francis for English."
Boy: He's pretty cool.
Nora: "Yeah, he seems okay so far. He's the only one that didn't give
us homework this weekend."
Panel 2:
Caption: Some new kid with a big house and travelling parents. Joe
was driving me. We were on-again, after being off-again for the
summer. I loved him, he said he loved me. We'd done just about
everything but.
Boy: Yeah, that sucks. I got like 50 trig questions, and have to read
a chapter of text for every class. But that's what Sundays are for,
baby... (takes eyes off road)
Panel 4:
Caption: Now I wish we'd done everything.
An animal (stray dog or cat) darts out onto the road.
Panel 5:
Nora: Joe, look out!
Car swerves,
Panel 6, 7, 8
Car crash. Very serious one.
Panel 9:
The car is totalled, both Joe and Nora are either seriously injured, or
dead... probably dead or dying (perhaps impaling wound or something).
No seatbelts. Nora has been thrown through the windshield.
-
I'll start off with two attempts to write up some of my RP characters in fiction.
First up, Chris, my mutant character who could leave his own body in a 'ghost form':
-
He lied down comfortably, paying no attention to the cramped space,
or to anything else. He felt himself sitting up, then standing, but there
was no weight, not even the weight of his own body, pressing down on him.
He felt his features change, taking on the appearance of an old man, and he
walked out of his home. There was no door, but to Chris, the wall didn't
really exist, or perhaps he didn't exist, as far as the wall was concerned.
Chris walked slowly, taking his time through the mall even though it was
the dead of night.
-
Next up, Anne, a character who would automatically erase the memories of anybody who saw her, 5 seconds after they stopped looking at her. The excerpt chronicles part of the
day her powers manifested the first time:
-
Some time later, it must have been ten or fifteen minutes, I went to the kitchen to get some juice.
There, I saw Dad. He was making a sandwich, which wasn't
unusual; he often skipped lunch and never ate breakfast, so he usually
ate something between getting home and dinner. What was unusual was
that I startled him. When he saw me, he flinched and dropped a mustard-
covered knife on the floor.
"Nice move," I said.
He just looked at me, squinting a little. "Uh, what are you
doing in here?"
As I got the glass, I showed it to him, and got to the fridge.
He was silent as I poured my drink, just staring at me. It was
beginning to creep me out.
Finally, he said, "But who are you? What are you doing in
my house?"
I rolled my eyes and started to walk away from him. "Not
funny, dad."
"I'm not kidding. You'd better explain yourself before I
called the police."
I went back to my room, slamming the door behind me. It
irritated me. My dad was always doing stupid little jokes, but
they usually weren't this bad.
I heard his footsteps coming down the hall towards my room,
and I figured he was coming to apologize, but then they faded out
again as he walked back to the living room.
-
Next let's move on to a couple attempts to write for Star Trek. Since they had their famous 'open submissions' policy for script, I got it into my head to try and write one on a number of occasions, but true to my usual pattern, I never finished.
First, one for DS9: "Heretics"
-
Vedek Teliko is addressing an increasingly unruly crowd.
VEDEK TELIKO
Everything we have done
for Bajor, we have done
ourselves, and given up
credit to the Prophets.
ODO arrives on the scene, and approaches Kira and Sisko.
ODO
What's going on?
SISKO
We're not quite sure. She
just went up to speak, and
started this...
KIRA
(interrupting)
Blasphemy.
ODO
Well, if someone doesn't
stop her, she's going to
start a riot.
SISKO
She has a right to speak
her mind. We can't just
stop her for no reason.
KIRA
Watch me.
Kira begins to move forward, but is stopped by:
SISKO
Major!
(to Odo)
Take her into protective
custody for the time being.
-
Here's a bit of a Star Trek Voyager script, called Pawns. This part of the script actually isn't related to the plot, it's just part of the teaser to introduce the episode. The plot would have been about a civilization in VR storage (yeah, I was really into VR), but who didn't know it. They sent a distress call accidentally by 'praying' in the right way to trigger the communications routines. When Voyager answers and investigates, Tom Paris is hooked into it, but can't get out. They eventually send the Doctor in to liason and they use 'cheat codes' inside the program to use 'magic' and save the day from whatever problem the people were having. But again, the excerpt has nothing to do with that:
-
TUVOK and PARIS are sitting by a table, playing 3D Chess.
TUVOK
(moves his piece)
Checkmate. Again.
PARIS
(annoyed)
I'm really starting to get sick of this game.
TUVOK
There are other games to choose from. You were the one who suggested Chess.
PARIS
We could always play a variant on Chess.
TUVOK
A variant? Which do you have in mind?
PARIS
Ever heard of 'Kamakazie Chess'?
TUVOK
I'm not familiar with it.
PARIS
I used to play it with a friend at the Academy. The object of the game is to
lose all of your peices before the other player.
TUVOK
You win by losing all of your peices first? That isn't... logical.
0
PARIS
If one of your peices can take one of mine, it must, and vice versa. What do
you say?
TUVOK
(thinking)
If the object of the game is to lose, you would have a distinct advantage over
me. At any rate, our next shift starts in 5 minutes, we will have to start
our game another time.
-
Finally (for the Treks), another DS9 script with the title Salem One. For those really big trek geeks reading this, Salem One was once given by Picard as an example of a sneak attack that led to a bloody war. In my script, I was going to expand on it and say it triggered the first war with Cardassia. It was my attempt to plough new ground on the whole 'Trek Time Travel' plot - It would have the Defiant thrust back in time to just before the Salem one attack. They discover that at the same time, another Defiant has also been sent back by the same accident. This Defiant is from a universe where the Salem One attack never occured, and so the war with Cardassia never happened.
After initial confusion, the two groups realize that for each of them, in order to secure the future they know, they have to do two mutually exclusive things. Either prevent the attack, or allow it to go forward, and so, although they both talk first, they will eventually have to fight or one of their whole future will be destroyed.
Anyway, here's the excerpt:
-
INT. ALTERNATE DEFIANT
SISKO ALTERNATE is at his chair. O'BRIEN ALTERNATE is working
under a console, trying to repair it. A male trill, DAX ALTERNATE
is at an equivalent position of Dax on our Defiant. There is also
a Cardassian, GLINN ARACK.
SISKO ALTERNATE
How is it coming, O'Brien?
O'BRIEN ALTERNATE
I think that will do it, Captain.
We should be able to access our
sensors now.
O'Brien Alternate gets up from the console and moves to Dax
Alternate's. Dax Alternate reads the display.
DAX ALTERNATE
There's a ship in front of us.
SISKO ALTERNATE
Is it a Jem'Hadar ship?
DAX ALTERNATE
No sir. It looks to be a vessel
of Federation design. In fact,
it's design matches our own.
SISKO ALTERNATE
Hail them.
On the viewscreen, our Sisko appears. He appears somewhat startled
to see himself.
SISKO ALTERNATE
Ready all weapons, it seems we've
got Founders.
SISKO
Wait... we're not the Founders.
Sisko Alternate mouths mute to Glinn Arack. He does.
SISKO ALTERNATE
How close does their ship match
our own?
DAX ALTERNATE
It's nearly identical from what
I can tell, right down to their
offensive capabilities.
SISKO ALTERNATE
I don't think even the Founders
would be able to match us that
exactly in so short a span of
time. Keep looking for anything
out of the ordinary. In the
meantime, are there any other
possibilities?
GLINN ARACK
The anomaly we encountered might
not have been the wormhole from
Dominion space we'd been looking
for. It could have been some
other type of naturally occuring
anomaly.
-
Now, let's move on to Sliders Fanfic. For a long time, I was big into writing Sliders
fanfic. I actually finished some, even, and if you knew where to look, you could probably still find some floating around on the net. But there was plenty I didn't
finish.
First up, a bit from a story I was going to do in a participatory 'Virtual 4th Season', when the real 4th season was in doubt. Since this story was due to be in the middle of the season somewhere, some things don't entirely make sense. Arturo is back (in the virtual 4th season they would have been joined by a double of him who got lost sliding on his own). The story was to be called The Final Argument of Kings involving a California which had seceeded from the USA:
-
"Mr. Brown, I find it hard to believe you've slid to as many
worlds as you claim, and you've still failed to grasp the simple fact
that different worlds have different tastes. It's probably quite
popular here."
Wade turned and walked backwards so she could face the others
as she added, "Yeah, remember back on Igloo Earth?"
"That was different Wade. You could peel off the fish fillet
strips if you wanted to, and besides, we were there long enough that
the guy knew we weren't too fond of them."
Wade faced forward again, then said, "There's Quinn and
Maggie."
"How was the pizza?" Quinn asked when they caught up, as he
wadded up the wrapping for his burger and tossed it in the trash.
"Don't ask, Q-ball," Rembrandt said. "Don't even ask."
"I warned you that you should have come with us," Maggie said,
smiling smugly.
Quinn pulled the timer out of his pocket and checked the
display. "Well, say goodbye to this Earth," he said as the display
counted down their last few seconds.
As usual, the vortex opened from a beam of light, spewed out
of the timer when the button was pushed. It coalesced into a
whirlpool of white and blue and black at a level that allowed them to
walk into it.
One by one, the five ran in before it closed behind them.
They flew, or were rather swept, down the interdimensional tunnel. It
was like a waterslide with no water, only wisps of light.
When they came out, they were on another world, and almost
fell into one huge pile. "I must say," Arturo said, sliding out from
Rembrandt, "Sliding was a lot easier when there was only two of us.
Now there is four times the chance to get hit." He thought of his
former companion, Bennish, and smiled. Bennish hit him on every one
of their slides together, but it was always accidental and he was
almost getting used to it.
-
Next up was from one I called Faces:
-
They headed for the nearest path, a few feet away, and
followed it for a while. Wade nudged Quinn and pointed down to the
left. "Hey, Quinn, look. A pool. Why don't you take your shirt off
and go for a swim to cool off?" She barely finished before Rembrandt,
only able to hold it in for a second, let out a small burst of
laughter. Arturo also chuckled lightly.
Quinn tried to smile indulgently. "Oh, come on, would you
give it a rest? How was I supposed to know I'd be arrested for
indecent exposure when I took off my shirt?"
"Lets see. A hundred degrees in the shade, and everyone's
wearing t-shirts into the ocean," Rembrandt said, still grinning,
before adding sarcastically, "Yeah, I guess there'd just be no way to
have known."
"Hey, we've all made cultural mistakes before, Remmy."
"He's right," Arturo said. "Need we remind you of when..."
"Okay, okay," Rembrandt said before he could finish. "I get
your point. We were just having a little fun, that's all."
"And after we spent half our savings bailing him out on that
last world," Wade said, "we're entitled to at least one joke about
it."
As they talked, they continued down the path, and spotted an
exit from the park by an area where picnic tables were set up, and
people ate their lunch.
"Say," Rembrandt said, "you guys notice anything about the
people here?"
Quinn looked around. "They all look to be in their twenties?"
"There's something more," said Arturo. "Look at those two
women over there."
"The twins?" asked Wade.
"Yes... don't they both look strikingly like that actress,
Julia Roberts?"
"Yeah," Rembrandt agreed. "And look, over there's another
one, sitting with the Kathy Ireland lookalike."
A woman walking a dog passed them from behind. "That one's a
ringer for Brooke Shields," Quinn observed. "You know, this is almost
eerie."
"Almost? There's another over there," Arturo pointed out with
a nod of his head.
"Oh, no, don't tell me," Wade said, in feigned fear. "Someone
on this world has been cloning supermodels?"
"Hallelujah," Rembrandt breathed, and Wade hit him lightly
across the chest with the back of her hand.
Quinn grinned. "It's not just the women. Look, there's Clint
Eastwood. We have about a week on this world. Plenty of time to find
out about these clones, if that's what they are."
"Not clones, exactly," the Professor said. "If they were
clones, I'd think they'd be about the same height. Of course,
environmental factors might conceivably play a role in that, but there
are other minute differences... things I can't quite put my finger
on." He shrugged.
"Let's find the Dominion," Wade suggested.
When they got out of the park, they noticed the trend
continued. Roughly one out of every ten people they saw looked, to
one degree or another, like someone who was famous on their world.
What's more, more than half looked to be in their early twenties.
-
The plot was that the Sliders landed on a world where people routinely had their faces sculpted to match celebrities. Rembrandt Brown, although slightly famous, was
assumed to be just a person with his face. Can't remember the other plot, but
there was something about Quinn's double being an actor who hadn't sold the rights
to his face, or something.
Next up, one called Live and Direct:
-
Quinn sighed. "We can't worry about that right now. What
about this guy? Should we tell him where to contact us?"
Arturo took a glance back at Wayne, who appeared to be taking
an interest in the architecture. "Assuming he was telling the truth
about the laws on this world, it might be safer to give false names so
he won't be suspicious, and then simply hole up until we Slide.
Unless of course, you want this world to find out we're visitors from
another dimension."
The others smiled. "I don't think that would be a good idea,"
Wade said.
The group broke and Quinn stepped closer to Wayne. "Okay, so
what do you want to know?"
"Just give me your names, and a place where I can get in touch
with you."
"My name is Jim Hall," Quinn said. The name worked before,
after all. He motioned to Wade, then the Professor, and finally
Rembrandt, as he introduced, "This is Dr. Juliet Jones, Dr. Maxwell
St. John, and Dr. Bill Stark."
"Okay, and where will you be staying?"
"The Dominion Hotel," Rembrandt offered. Wayne nodded.
Quinn asked, "So, can we go then?"
"I've got all I need. We'll be in touch."
Rembrandt breathed a sigh of relief, despite himself, and the
group headed down the street.
Wayne could hear the light clicking of a keyboard over his
headset, then his voice said, "I checked them out... they're lying all
right. There's no one with those names who fit their description in
the database. The closest Dominion Hotel is down in 'Frisco, so
you might want to find out where they're really headed."
"Don't worry, I'm on it... if what we overheard was true, we
can't afford to let it slip by."
"If what we overheard is true," the voice added, "we all
better be getting a raise. The story of the century, and it's an
election week!"
Wayne turned the dial on the camera again, and pointed the
microphone towards the departing group.
"Juliet Jones?" he heard the woman say.
"Sorry, Wade. It was the first name I could think of."
"Well. At least you made me a doctor." They chuckled.
Rembrandt looked over towards a fast food place. "Hey, you
guys think we have enough in the budget to get a bite to eat?"
"An excellent suggestion, Mr. Brown," Arturo said. The others
nodded their assent, and the group entered the small eatery.
Wayne spoke into his headset. "They've just gone into Burger
Palace. That's owned by Network Eight, right? We'll have to catch up
with them on the way out. Get on the line to the Media Affairs Court.
We need an interview subpeona for these people before someone beats us
to it."
-
I was also going to have them asked at their interview, during a commercial break. "We'd appreciate if you not use the term 'Sliders'. That's what Network Ten's fast food place calls its burgers, and we don't want any cross-promotion."
FYI, I used the general idea of Live and Direct as part of my What I'd Do With... Sliders post.
Now, before we move onto cracky crossovers, one last Sliders fic, with a bit of a twist. One of the Sliders fics I finished was called, I think Surrogate Lives, and involved them landing on a world where everybody _but_ Quinn was lost sliding. He offered them the chance to stay on his world while he took their timer to look for his friends. They declined of course, but I had an idea for a sequel, or rather, a series of sequels. In them, that Quinn would assemble a new team with a new plan and go Sliding to try and recover the people he lost. The series was to be called Quinn's Redemption. I never actually finished the first part, so here's a bit of that:
-
"That was," Kelley started, catching her breath. "That was...
amazing."
"Yeah," Wing said. "We should do some work to improve those
landings, though."
"Where are we?" Kelley asked.
"We're at the same place we were before," Quinn explained.
"Only on this world, the room must be just for storage."
"Hey," Bennish said, grabbing a shoe to push himself off the
floor with. "What happened to the music?" He took the headphones off
his ears. "Guess on this world my favorite station is all-news."
"What's going on in this world?" Kelley asked.
Bennish put the headphones back on. "Some sort of summit
between the Soviets and the Americans." His head tilted to one side
with some curiosity, then took the headphones off again. "Looks like
its between President Colin Powell and Somebody Hard-to-pronounce-ski.
They've just gone to a commercial break."
"What do you say we get out of here," Wing suggested.
The door was in the same place as in their lab and, though
locked, opened from the inside. It was sunny out in this world, which
contrasted to the overcast sky they woke up to on their home world.
"Do you think they might be here?" Kelley asked.
"Well, we're not going to find out just standing here,"
Bennish said.
"Let's split up into two groups," Quinn said. "We'll meet
back here in four hours to check in, and in seven and a half for the
slide. Okay?"
"Sounds good," Bennish checked his watch, then turned to
Kelley and asked, "So, you want to be in my group?"
Wing, noting Kelley's doubtful look, put a hand on Bennish's
shoulder, shaking his head with an apologetic smile. "Come on. We'll
take the university. I figure if Professor Arturo would go to anyone
for help, it'd be himself."
Quinn nodded. "Kelley and I will check out the library, and
see if we can find anything on the Internet. If worst comes to worst,
we'll try to find other doubles on this world." He reached into his
pocket and pulled out a small black box, then tossed it to Wing.
"Just in case."
Wing nodded. "Happy hunting, Mallory."
As they split up, Quinn could overhear Bennish's fading voice
saying optomistically, "I think she likes me." If Kelley heard it
too, she gave no sign.
"What was that you gave Wing?" she asked.
"It's our backup plan. If they have to miss the Slide, they
can activate that, and we should be able to lock onto them back home."
"That's helpful."
"Yes. There's only one problem. When we tested it last, it
took us two full days of nonstop searching before we found it. That's
why its only a last resort. We don't know how long it might take
before we're able to get back, and if someone's in trouble enough to
miss the meeting, they might not be able to wait for us to pick them
up." He clenched his jaw, then added under his breath, "But I'm not
losing anyone else."
-
The Sliding crew, aside from Quinn, were all minor Sliders characters- Wade's sister Kelly, and two of Quinn's classmates, Wing, and Conrad Bennish Jr, one of my favorite characters on the show. I did have the whole series roughly plotted out. It was intended to be something like 6 stories, with one after they recovered their friends where the Kromaggs come to their world. Since they weren't 'lost' but had a home base, it would also focus a bit on their own lives. Wing, after discovering (in this story) that his double was engaged to a university acquaintence, would look her up on his world. The world in the first adventure was on the brink of World War with Russia, and Bennish was mistaken for a commie spy (because his fingerprints matched a soldier who was at that moment on an aircraft character)
Okay, so let's move onto Cracky Crossover Time. To smooth the transitions, the first is a crossover with Sliders again. Sliders crossed with Gargoyles, the cartoon:
-
Arturo stepped away from the group, intruiged by something on
the other side of the roof. Wade was the first to notice him
wandering off, and nudged Quinn and Rembrandt. Quinn called out,
"What is it, Professor? You see something?" They began to approach
him.
He was examining a large stone statue, a gargoyle. It looked
larger than any human, and was crouched in a pose that reminded Arturo
of that bronze statue of The Thinker, the most notable difference
being the large wings at its back. It was in the center of the west
side of the roof, looking out on the city. Beside it, there was
another, this one distinctly female. It looked almost ready to come
to life and pounce off the roof like a jungle cat. On the other side
of the large male was another statue, this one resembling more a large
hippo, but with webbed ears and stone claws as paws. This third one
had no wings whatsoever. They looked incredibly well-done and life-
like. "Unless these are a recent addition, I'd say this isn't home,"
Arturo said. He saw the looks of disappointment on the faces of the
others. "Don't lose hope, this still could be. For all we know these
were added in the last month or so. In fact," he said, glancing at
the feet of the statues, "I'm not even sure if they're attached."
It was still a blow to their hopes, though, and they said
nothing. "They look awfully creepy, though," Rembrandt said, looking
at the statues.
"I don't know, this middle guy looks kind of majestic. Almost
noble, even," Quinn said with a smirk.
Wade sat down cross-legged on the ledge, looking out over the
horizon. "Look, the sun's about to go down."
Arturo glanced about. "Well, I suppose we had better book a
room, then. Let's be off."
"What's the rush, Professor?" Wade said. "Can't we just do
something normal like sit and watch the sun go down for once? Anyway,
I'm sure we'd all like to catch our breath a bit more from the last
world."
Arturo smiled gently, like a father to a child. "Alright, if
you insist, although I must say it's quite overrated." He walked over
to the ledge and watched.
-------
Stairwell, Dominion Hotel
San Francisco
A minute before sunset
Detective Elisa Maza climbed the stairs to the roof. Almost
time for the guys to wake up, she thought to herself as she neared the
top. Some subconscious feeling caused her to stop for a moment. When
she did, very faintly she heard... voices. It was too early for
sunset, she knew, which meant someone must have been on the roof.
Running quickly and in a panic, she burst through the door onto the
roof. No one was there, so she turned towards the other side of it,
where her friends were perched for the day, and saw four strangers.
Two of them were sitting on the ledge beside her friends, and the
other two were standing behind, looking onto the city.
"Hey!" she called out, "What are you doing up here?"
One of the two on the ledge, a short-haired young woman of
about twenty years of age, called back, "Just watching the sunset..."
The others had turned to her. She could see in their eyes some fear,
anxiety... maybe even guilt. Her cop-instinct was usually pretty good
at picking it up.
Right now, however, she didn't have time. "Well, you can't do
it here... I'm going to have to ask you to get off." She pulled her
badge out of the pocket of her red jacket, and showed it to them. She
was NYPD, and so had no real authority here, but hoped they wouldn't
question it.
-
Next up, a bit from a Quantum Leap/Early Edition crossover fic I started:
-
He turned to her. She wasn't looking at him, just straight down
at the bar with a vacant expression. She looked down at the dog by her
legs and realized she was blind. "Good morning," he replied pleasantly.
"You all right?" she asked.
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, you just seem to carry yourself
differently. Usually I know you're coming by the way you walk. It's
just different somehow." She shrugged again. "So, what's in the paper
today?"
He looked down under his arm at the paper, then unfolded it. It
was probably a ritual they had, him reading her the paper every morning.
He just wished he knew her name.
"Uh, well, the state's considering a new crime bill."
"That hardly seems urgent." Sam nodded. Just then, he heard
a wooshing sound. He turned to see Al stepping out of the Imaging
Chamber door. Today, Al wore an orange shirt with a silvery tie, and a
brownish vest on top. And of course, his hat and cigar.
"Sam, I've got some information for you... it's not much, but
it's a start," Al said.
Sam nodded, then looked at Marissa. "Could you excuse me for
a minute, I have to go to the washroom." She nodded.
Al pointed him towards the washroom, which was good because it
would have raised questions if he had to ask the way himself.
Once they were inside, Al looked at his handlink and said, "Well,
first of all, your name is Gary Hobson, and you're in Chicago."
"I know. I also know it's October 15th, 1997."
Al shook his head. "No, it's the 14th."
"No, it's the 15th," Sam insisted.
"Ziggy says it's the 14th."
Sam raised the paper so Al could see. "Well, the paper says
it's the 15th."
"Maybe it's a misprint," Al suggested. Sam just looked at him,
and he relented. "Okay, okay, maybe Ziggy's made a mistake." There was
a high-pitched whine from the handlink, but Al ignored it. He was about
to continue but Sam interrupted.
"We're in 1997, Al. That's after I first leaped. Has that ever
happened before?"
"No," Al admitted. "But there's really nothing preventing it.
We just figure it doesn't happen very often because it's hard to get
the data we need." He pressed a few buttons on the handlink and
continued. "Anyway, our best estimate is that you're here because on
October 15th, 1997, Gary Hobson died."
"You think."
"Ziggy says there's only a 50-50 chance."
"Only 50% chance? That sure sounds like what I'm supposed to
change."
Al shook his head. "No, Ziggy doesn't think there's a 50-50
chance that's what you're here to do. There's a 50-50 chance that Gary
Hobson died."
"How can that be, Al?"
Al shrugged. He looked as perplexed as Sam was. "I don't know.
Ziggy says there's this weird double-vision in the records. At the same
time, the newspaper for this day reports that he dies, and doesn't mention
him at all. We get a file that Ziggy claims both says he's deceased, and
still living in 1999."
"Strange. Maybe I'm changing things just by being here?" Sam
asked.
"That's a possibility," Al said. "Maybe it's because there's
something Mr. Hobson does that you wouldn't, and so you just have to
wait it out."
Sam nodded. "So, what else do you have?"
"Not much. Mr. Hobson was helpful up to a point, but then he
clammed up. Dr. Beeks thinks he's into something dangerous, maybe
illegal."
"Criminal record?"
"He's been arrested a number of times in the past year, but
never been charged with anything. Before that, he was a model citizen.
Just over a year ago, he got divorced, then quit his job. He was out
of work and living in a hotel for about a year, then a month or so ago
he got this bar. From what we've been able to gather, it was a gift."
Al looked up. "A little suspicious, if you ask me. Anyway, his
partner's name is Chuck Fishman, and I think the woman you were sitting
with is Marissa Clark. They're his best friends."
"Anything on them?"
"Nothing we can dig up. Chuck moves to Hollywood in a few
months, and Marissa takes over management of the bar not long after
that."
-
One of the points of the plot was that Gary would still keep getting the paper even while he was in the future, and so would be able to prevent a disaster at Quantum Leap headquarters. Although I didn't quite figure out how, which might have been part of the reason I didn't finish the story.
Since Quantum Leap was ripe for crossovers, that wasn't the only one I tried. Here's a bit of a Quantum Leap/X-Files Crossover:
-
Gawd, it makes me CRAZY when you're a girl. Aw
geez... gonna have to see Dr. Beeks again..." Al hated it whenever Sam leapt
into a woman, especially a pretty one. The nature of his link allowed him to
somehow see both Sam and his borrowed aura simultaneously.
"AL!! WHY am I here?!"
"Oh yeah." Al consulted the small electronic box in his hand. "It's April
25, 1994. Ziggy's already throwing a fit because the date's so close to your
first leap date. Your name is Dana Scully. *DR.* Dana Scully. Age 27...
yumm...I mean um... You're a field agent with the FBI in Washington D.C. Have
been for five years. But for the past year you've been assigned to some special
unit called `X-Files'."
"X-FILES? What's THAT?"
The hand link flashed as Al punched some entries into it's keyboard. He
frowned, took a cigar out of his breast pocket, popped it in his mouth, tried
again. The unit squawked... flashed... Al hit slapped his palm against it's
side in frustration. "Damnmit Ziggy! What do you mean `classified'? NOTHING
is THAT classified!"
Sam felt a sudden chill down his back, like trickle of icy water. Even WITH
his swiss-cheesed memory, he KNEW something was wrong. A distant part of him
remembered he'd built Ziggy, and that this was something that SHOULDN'T be
happening.
"AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaal..... ????"
"Damn piece of cybernetic junk." Al growled, the cigar clenched in his
teeth. "You're gonna..." As the hand link's flashing & squawking became more
frenzied, the colour of his language escalated to match it.
Suddenly there was a burst of light. Flailing, Al fell backwards through the
office wall, out of Sam's sight. Sam watching the spot for a few moments,
waiting for Al to come back, before he was interrupted.
"Hey, what are you doing, there?" said a voice behind Sam.
He swung round to see a slim man with dark hair in a charcoal grey suit.
Even, regular features... a kind face. But something else. Something in his
EYES...
-
In this fic, Mulder would have been able to see Al, but Sam and he would figure it out early on and so have to be very careful about where they talked. Mulder would gradually learn the truth that Scully had been replaced.
Finally, it was hardly an original idea, but I liked it when I thought about it. I always used to like My So Called Life, and since I also liked Buffy, I once thought about how it might be cool if, in an alternate reality, either after Buffy died once or instead of Buffy (depending on how the timeline worked out, I can't remember exactly), Angela Chase was chosen as the next Vampire slayer. So I wrote up a little bit of a script for that, called (again, with stunning originality) 'The So-Called Vampire Slayer':
-
Katimsky: And just remember, those (short pause) reports are due on
(longer pause) Monday. (points to Angela) Angela Chase, can you stay
for a little after class?
(She seems surprised, but resigned. Katimski waits for everybody to
leave, then closes the door.)
Angela (nervously): So, what did you want to talk about?
Katimsky: I need to talk to you about... (pause, scratches head) gee whiz,
how do you say something like this. I thought I'd have more... (pause)
time.
Angela: Wait, is this about Ricky?
Katimsky (smiles): Enrique? No, this has nothing to do with him. It's
about you. You see (pause) there's one girl, in all the world who is
(pause) Chosen.
Angela: What, did I win a contest or something?
Katimsky: No, no, no... would you just listen for a moment. There's one
girl in all the world, and she's the slayer. When one slayer falls,
the next is called. It's a sacred duty.
Angela (VO): I had no idea what he was talking about, so I just stood
there and nodded, hoping that once he made whatever metaphorical point
he was trying to, I could go. (She nods)
Katimsky (getting frustrated): We didn't think it would happen so soon,
and we knew you were a possibility, but we weren't sure until today
when you were (he scratches his head again and pauses) called. You're
the Vampire Slayer.
Angela (VO): I never thought I'd hear the word Vampire in a conversation
like, with an adult. Especially not from a teacher.
Angela: What?
Katimsky: You're a Vampire Slayer. *The* Vampire Slayer. Most people think
vampires are (medium pause) fictional. But they're not. They're a form of
demon, inhabiting a human body. And it's your duty to hunt them down and
(long pause) slay them.
Angela: You're kidding me, right?
Katimsky (getting slightly more annoyed): No, I'm not kidding. You have
to be ready, Angela. If not... (sees the bandage on her hand) what happened
to your hand?
Angela (defensive, putting it behind her back): I cut it on some glass this
morning.
Katimsky: This morning? It should be healed by now. (Angela looks at
him strangely) Well, go on, don't take my word for it. (waves his hands
at her nervously) Take a look.
Angela (now getting a bit freaked out, and making an excuse): Um, I like
have Soc next... and, like, Mr. Demitri said something about a quiz, so,
I'd better go.
Katimsky (upset, waving a hand at her): Go, go. Your studies are important.
(as she starts to leave) But Angela, this isn't the end of this. I want
you to come see me sometime during lunch. (taps his desk lightly) I'll
be... (pause) right here. And you can't talk about this, it's important.
(she gives him a look, then leaves. Katimsky sighs, putting his hands
through his hair) I'm not good at this.
-
And, before we leave off fanfic style stuff completely, for fun I toyed with writing a Mutant Book. It would have included Anne and Chris. The first issue would have been called "The Night I Died", with the meaning (metaphorical, literal, etc) of that phrase being different for each character. So here's a little bit of it (ignore the fact that there are a huge amount of panels):
-
(Pg 1: One establishing page (of maybe 5 panels) of a friday dismissal
from classes.
Pg2/3: Friday night.
Panel 1:
Caption (Nora's Thoughts): There was a party that night I died. I mean,
we were on our way to one.
A boy's driving in his car with a girl (NORA). They're
talking about classes.. it's the first weekend after school started.
Nora: "..and Mr. Francis for English."
Boy: He's pretty cool.
Nora: "Yeah, he seems okay so far. He's the only one that didn't give
us homework this weekend."
Panel 2:
Caption: Some new kid with a big house and travelling parents. Joe
was driving me. We were on-again, after being off-again for the
summer. I loved him, he said he loved me. We'd done just about
everything but.
Boy: Yeah, that sucks. I got like 50 trig questions, and have to read
a chapter of text for every class. But that's what Sundays are for,
baby... (takes eyes off road)
Panel 4:
Caption: Now I wish we'd done everything.
An animal (stray dog or cat) darts out onto the road.
Panel 5:
Nora: Joe, look out!
Car swerves,
Panel 6, 7, 8
Car crash. Very serious one.
Panel 9:
The car is totalled, both Joe and Nora are either seriously injured, or
dead... probably dead or dying (perhaps impaling wound or something).
No seatbelts. Nora has been thrown through the windshield.
-