Story Pitches

This thread is for the writefags to pitch their story to the community. If you have an idea for a story, this is the place to put it.

In detail: Write out a brief synopsis of your story (or stories) and write it into your post. If a consensus is reached on a stories pitch, if it seems interesting, or if people have a strong desire to run a particular story, then your story may be selected.

Guidelines:
Try to keep the synopsis of each story brief (under 500 words), so the general idea of the story can be read quickly.
Feel free to give multiple ideas per post.
Use proper spelling and grammar.
Be prepared to go into further detail about your story when asked.
Keep in mind that it's all for fun.

Synopsis:
This is a succinct break down of your story, describing in brief what it’s about. Try to think of it as a film pitch – who the story is about, where it’s set (the setting) what your characters are doing and why (the set up) and who or what is trying to stop them (the conflict or confrontation) And remember to add the ending of the story into your synopsis so the readers can get a full view of the plot. (These are guidelines for writing fiction in general, this format may not apply to every style of story)

Good luck everyone, remember to have fun and let the creative juices flow.

A bunch of pretty girls who were doing nothing on the internet suddenly decide to meet up and make manga together. Familiar, huh? However, t could work as a 4koma. They act cute just like every 4koma moe girl ever did, except with high dosages of sarcasm, cynicism and they invent stories that would actually sell.

So, K-On! minus music plus manga.

An otaku witnesses a yakuza murder and body disposal outside of his apartment, and his intense fear of being killed forces him to report this incident to the police and attempt to be put under witness protection. The body is then identified as a member of the House of Councilors, who held a firm anti-drug stance. His death creates a tip in the balance of power between the Japanese government and the Yakuza, with our otaku hero at the center of it all.

A mystery story with plenty of political intrigue, action, and betrayal.

Those with particularly good memory may recognize the following idea. Posted it in one of those "You've been given cash. Make animu" threads. Aiming for a sort of steampunk Cowboy Bebop here.

As the result of a material used in Aether Engines, a deadly gas now covers the surface of the planet. People took to the sky in enormous floating cities atop steam-powered jet-engines of myriad size, a vain effort to wait for the gas to dissipate. These cities have recently begun to fall into disrepair after almost two-hundred years of flight.
Some people work on keeping these cities afloat, a few leave and become air pirates, and even fewer have the idiocy to construct airships and explore the surface of the planet in search of treasures and the like.

Summary: On one of the Wildcat's increasingly fruitless expeditions, they discover a factory that is spewing out this gas, and are fired on by what they assume to be pirates.
Though they ultimately gun down their pursuers in the ensuing chase, they find it strange that they were followed for so long.
Deciding to investigate the factory, and eventually find out that the gas was all the work of an Acme Products company.

I'm aware that the ship name is lame. It's just a placeholder for something better.


The next is one that can be run as a "Choose your own Adventure," as suggested in the "What will we publish?" thread.
I'll post an excerpt in "Work Samples"

Harris is the most advanced city ever built. Its residents are forced to invent something new every week or they mysteriously disappear.
Because of this, there is a black market for new ideas. The police make regular busts on the market, and those with even slight ties to it will vanish. Sometimes the controllers of this market will even sell the names of their clients when the cash surplus runs low.
The protagonist decides to "buy" from the market after a long stint of writer's block. But the next day he gets a phone call from a friend: "Your name's been sold."


Finally, I have something that could run as a one-shot. Wrote it as a short story, so the description is going to suck.

The protagonist is awoken by a voice coming from a speaker on the white walls of the room they're in. It forces the protag to put on a red jumpsuit, forces pills down the protagonist's throat, and then shoves the protagonist into a teardrop-shaped craft, dropping them into the violently churning waters below. The craft seems to squeeze the protag's body tighter and tighter as it starts falling apart. The protag stops breathing, and then everything goes white. When they finally come to, they're being held upside down in a blindingly bright as a deep voice cheerfully says to a crying woman "Say hello to your baby, Ms. Parker!"
The whole thing's an allegory for giving birth.

How do you bring superhumans together? Well preventing apocalypse always works for that. There are a number of chosen people, chosen by fate, god, or whatever (All based on the Major Arcana in Tarot). They each have superhuman traits (befitting the tarot arcana which they derive their name from) as well as an item which enhances their power. When given their card from God's tarot deck (name sucks, will come up with something better) they receive their magical item. Once they die, their item reverts to the form of a card.

The Fool, Isaac, has no limitations; his muscles are extremely dense, giving him the potential to become exceptionally fast and strong. He is given a chain which gains links as he becomes stronger. The chain is indestructible and heavier than it looks, composed of an unknown and mystical element. As a closet weeaboo, he will often make references to a number of series, such as getting a regent haircut during their trip to japan. Another piece of equipment he will later gain is Judgment, a trumpet which can distort reality to an extent, enabling time travel, teleportation, and whatever the hell else I can come up with.

Layla, the love interest (as most stories require), is the High Priestess/Popess. She has got foresight, and has dreams which show the distant future. She has a necklace which focuses her power, seeing a situation a minute or so prior to it happening. She knows numerous languages, making conversation between the people in different countries possible.

The Magician is a Japanese gang leader. He’s can kill a person with anything, and being given a magical top hat that allows him to pull anything out of that he wants really makes him a bamf.

The hierophant. He’s a wise old man, adopted Layla as a child. The professor Xavier of the group. He has a book which has kept a history of the universe and everything in it.

A muscular Russian, like Zangeif from street fighter, is the Chariot (lol person is named after an inanimate object). His power seems to be the same as Apache Chief’s, however it is actually to make the universe smaller or larger around him. His item is a suit of armor made of that same indestructible metal as Isaac's chain, prior to obtaining the armor he always destroys his clothing whenever he increases in size.

There’s other characters: like the Emperor who is a genius engineer with control over the inanimate, and the Empress who is essentially just a bitch and whore, and Strength which is a lion which is killed to make a cloak like Hercules' (though the cloak amplifies the strength of the person wearing it).

After the first threat to the world is ended, a more religious one takes its place. The devil’s army would destroy the world in 2 years, unless the chosen stop him. However the only means of doing so is for one of them to enter Hell. To enter Hell all the other chosen must die, as their tarot cards are the keys to the door. Isaac doesn’t want any part of it, but that changes once Layla is killed by a mysterious stranger.

There’s a few ways this story could end, cliché happy ending, sad ending, or Isaac becomes god after taking the powers of everyone else, then goes back in time and creating the universe (which is no worse than L. Ron Hubbard's creation story).

Edit: Sorry for the excessive length, kinda went overboard.

A Robot Detective and a young female photography student solve crimes in a diesel-punk futuristic 1920's city.

The first case is set up as a typical locked room murder in some old mansion, unsolved by the dwindling police force during the height of prohibition. The Robot Detective breaks on to the scene acting like an imbecile, accusing all the suspects with no base. Hi-jinx ensue, turns out it was suicide after all and everyone was guilty for trying to kill the heiress of the fortune. Thus making the Detective seem like a real genius.

Afterword however the heiress is shot in the head when requesting protection from the Detective. Causing him to break down and reveal his incompetence, leaving the female lead to try and clean up the mess and somehow find the true culprits behind the murder.

This is largely pretty rough but I've drawn some concept stuff for it, and am planning to polish the character designs when I get back home.

Alrighty, back from sleeping. Now I can repost my previous idea, hopefully with more clarity from 8 hours of shut eye.

The story takes place in a typical American high school, and the perspective is split between two people: a stereotypical shoujo romance lead and a relatively normal guy. The story is drawn so that the right page is the girl's perspective and the guy's is the left. Both pages will be shown right next to each other so that the same scene can be seen from both their eyes.

The girl is your typical shoujo romance lead: clumsy, broke, high spirited, and cute in the way that no one really seems to notice until near the end of the story. The start of the manga is beginning at her first day transferring to a new school. After introducing herself to her new classmates, she eyes the male lead and falls in love with him. She makes a pledge to herself to do whatever it takes to win his heart. The artstyle is typical sparkles and saucer eyes pushed to its logical extreme.

The guy is a fairly normal guy: decently good looking, possibly on a sports team, and no interest in anime/manga. The day the girl lead transfers is nothing to get excited about. She's pretty plain looking, and he wonders why she refers to herself as Natsu-chan and generally has a weird way to talking. Throughout the month he puts up with her awkward advances just to be nice although he really has no interest in her. As time goes on, she becomes more persistent in her attempts and soon crosses into stalker territory. The weird part is that other people are starting to get in on her act. Friends and classmates begin acting less like they normally do and more like the way she perceives them. He even swears they start looking different. Eventually a manga savvy friend of his shows him a manga called Love Blooms in the Summer, which he remembers the girl reading in class. After flipping through it, he begins to see how reality is starting to conform to the girl's interpretation of the story and knows he has to do something before all of reality is lost to it, including himself. The art style for this side would be a bit more of a realistic style. In my head I see it like Junji Ito like, but anything that would clash with the shoujo style would be great. As the story progresses, the artstyle of the girl's begins to bleed into this side as people, places, and even just bits of the sky begin changing until it's just the male lead.

I'm not posting an ending yet because I'm still thinking on that part, but then again I wouldn't want to spoil the whole story already. Sorry if I went a bit tl;dr.

I just realized my pitch is a bit excessive for a summer-long magazine, I will come up with something more reasonable by Friday.

Edit- Brainspasm lead me to a new concept:

Set in Trinton City (fictional port city on the East Coast of the United States), a basement-dwelling 22 year old MMORPG player is kicked out by his Dad because he isn't employed and does not go to college. Rather than curling up in a ball in front of his home, he treats the world as a series of quests, asking random people if they need help in some way or another. He eventually ends up getting involved in some local gang quarrels by accident.

Not sure if I should work with cliche mobsters and ghetto thugs. Will probably be a comedy if protagonist doesn't die.

Perian wrote:A Robot Detective and a young female photography student solve crimes in a diesel-punk futuristic 1920's city.

The first case is set up as a typical locked room murder in some old mansion, unsolved by the dwindling police force during the height of prohibition. The Robot Detective breaks on to the scene acting like an imbecile, accusing all the suspects with no base. Hi-jinx ensue, turns out it was suicide after all and everyone was guilty for trying to kill the heiress of the fortune. Thus making the Detective seem like a real genius.

Afterword however the heiress is shot in the head when requesting protection from the Detective. Causing him to break down and reveal his incompetence, leaving the female lead to try and clean up the mess and somehow find the true culprits behind the murder.

This is largely pretty rough but I've drawn some concept stuff for it, and am planning to polish the character designs when I get back home.

this sounds like a pretty good idea. What kind of artstyle did you have in mind for it?

A married couple who had previously saved their universe from artificially collapsing into itself now face a more dire threat. Parallel worlds from the entire plane of existence are beginning to meld into a single world, causing chaotic destruction. The more melding that occurs, the more destruction, and eventually all existence will cease to be livable. The heroic couple travel through connected pathways into other parallel worlds created from the melding to find the cause and try to stop it. A freak accident occurs and the couple are violently separated. The wife now must not only find the cause of the melding, but her husband as well, who could be on any of the countless parallel worlds.

The wife is gifted with near infinite super strength, given to her by a goddess that previously nearly caused her universe to implode. The melding of parallel worlds however has somehow weakened her considerably, so she must find the cause before her powers simply vanish and become useless. She's usually very calm and hard to anger but is heavily dependent on her husband for emotional support (very clingy). Without him, she becomes unstable and is desperate to find him among the millions of parallel worlds.

Story is more about the wife as she experiences traveling through other worlds and gains her own independence than saving all of existence and finding her husband (of course she'll still want to do those).

Haven't thought of an ending yet, I kinda want to make the story flow like Mushishi with an open ending (despite the existence-crushing premise). I've drawn some concepts of the main characters too.

Taiga wrote:

this sounds like a pretty good idea. What kind of artstyle did you have in mind for it?

I guess I've always liked the way Kumeta Kouji (SZS), and Nakamura Yuusuke (AKG Cover Art, Tatami Galaxy) design their characters, something more simple and graphic. Only big western minds that I really pull stuff from is probably Gendy Tartakovsky. Don't get me wrong I really love more rendered illustrators like Obata, and Miura, but only few people rarely get that good.

I'm planning to draw all (well, at least the frequent) /a/ copypasta...

The one thing I have in mind is that Shiney Pidgey one, but I don't think it's /a/ related...

Gotta start small...

I'M NO WRITER BUT I CAN SOOO DO THIS IF I REALLY WANT TO (AND I DO). Even with the shit ton of writefags, I'd like to contribute more than just 'herp derp typing words in balloons.'

It's a 4koma, and it's about a gynoid programmed with special artificial intelligence capable of learning human thought and emotion. Like that movie with the robo shota who searched for the blue fairy with some other android who thought he was Elvis or some shit. OH WAIT He was a prostitute. W/e.

Anyway, to test the program, gynoid-chan's creators send her off to PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL where she must blend in with those wacky human teenagers! If she doesn't completely fit in by graduation, she'll be scraped...! BITCH MIGHT [START OFF AS] BE DANDERE, BUT WHO WANTS THAT SHIT? NO ONE, THAT'S WHO.

So she makes it her mission to make friends with normal humans to teach her how to become like them. BUT YOU SEEEEEE these friends, man? A trap, an otaku, a yankee girl, and a class clown. OHHH THE THINGS SHE'LL LEARN ALL RIGHT! A LIGHT-HEARTED COMEDY FROM AWARD-WINNING KUCHINASHI! UUUOOOOHHH!

tl;dr- My Life As A Teenage Robot only less obnoxiousness and more /a/ bait.

AniMOE and ManGAR wrote:
Gotta start small...

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
- Theodore 'Motherfucker' Roosevelt

START BIG! GLORY!


Also, Lukalade: I dig the idea. Have you fleshed out the storyline? The worlds she'll be visiting, major conflicts and the like?
Can't see it as having a single villain, so that's interesting.

AirPig wrote:"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
- Theodore 'Motherfucker' Roosevelt

He is now my favorite American president. I'm sorry, Mr. Lincoln.

AirPig wrote:
Also, Lukalade: I dig the idea. Have you fleshed out the storyline? The worlds she'll be visiting, major conflicts and the like?
Can't see it as having a single villain, so that's interesting.

I've a few worlds and other main characters thought out, still thinking about major conflicts and how exactly she'll travel from world to world. Want it to be more episodic, with each chapter only vaguely connected with each other, and then sometimes have a more coherent and major arc.

Probably won't bother focusing on the tons of worlds she travels, just the few ones that matter.

Lukalade wrote:Probably won't bother focusing on the tons of worlds she travels, just the few ones that matter.

No, that would be completely wrong for a long running episodic series.
You can have major arcs that contain the information the reader will care most about, but while those arcs will show her quest the minor arcs will show/build her character. Minor arcs might not be as flashy as the major ones, but without them all you will get is a B action movie from the eighties (even if you try writing a romantic comedy set in the future).

I have a general seinen idea.

In 2105 AD, the world is in chaos. With climate change and world population going out of control, natural resources become scarce. Some countries band together (Europe unites), while others invade other countries to increase their own power (China absorbs southeast Asia, Russia retakes over countries from the former Soviet Union). Africa and the Middle East become war zones, with various countries trying to seize control over natural resources.

In 2110 AD, the UN gets the world to sign a peace agreement. The UN designates Casablanca as the capital of the world, due to its central location. A tenuous peace is made, but unofficial black ops continue.

In 2115 AD, The UN opens a school (either a high school or a college, I haven't decided yet) with students from all across the world, to educate them to be the next leaders of the world. Most of the students are children of important political figures from their respective countries.

But, a month after the school is opened, it becomes the target of a biological attack. A bomb goes off on campus, unleashing what should have been a deadly virus upon the students, and the UN's bomb squad that was trying to disarm it. Some people die to the virus, but other get superpowers. The Survivors (as the super powered survivors of the attack are called) don't just get superpowers; they are all afflicted with either mental or physical disorders from the bomb (schizophrenia, multiple personalities, various phobias, mental twitches like turrets, or lesser quirks).

Super powered soldiers become sort of a fad with countries. Countries start research to develop their own super powers, as well as training soldiers to deal with super powered people, or developing other technology, like robots. Black ops start becoming far more deadly.

All of the countries and the UN try to recruit the Survivors, to use them for various purposes. The UN in particular tries to get them, to try to maintain world peace.

The story focuses on particular Survivors, who are students attending the UN's international school. They are often sent on missions by the UN to be peacekeepers in warring areas. But while at school, no one knows which of their classmates are working for who. Political intrigue, mystery, action, partial slice of life, etc.

I have a pretty long list of super powers and disorders, and can post them if people think that the story is a good enough idea.

Metoma wrote:I have a general seinen idea.

That seems like a pretty interesting idea. For some reason I thought of Battle Royale when I was reading that. It sounds like a project I could get behind.

ThatGuy wrote:

Lukalade wrote:Probably won't bother focusing on the tons of worlds she travels, just the few ones that matter.

No, that would be completely wrong for a long running episodic series.
You can have major arcs that contain the information the reader will care most about, but while those arcs will show her quest the minor arcs will show/build her character. Minor arcs might not be as flashy as the major ones, but without them all you will get is a B action movie from the eighties (even if you try writing a romantic comedy set in the future).

I meant that she would be traversing thousands of worlds and I don't want to focus on all those. I fully intend to have minor arcs.

Metoma wrote:I have a general seinen idea. (...)

-

Aw hell yeah, I can get behind that. Bring out yo concepts, broseph.

Sweet, there's some interest in this. Here are some ideas for characters.

1. The human psyche is separated into 3 parts - the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is basic impulses, and pleasure seeking, the superego is the part that strives for order and socially acceptable behavior. The ego is what maintains the balance of the id and superego, and is the part of the mind that we actually act upon. However, this character's psyche was shattered, leaving only the id and superego, which they can switch back and forth with. Their power, electricity, manifests when the id is active. However, the superego almost always has control over the body. So, the student is a super conservative perfectionist. Pretty much a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde character.

2. A girl that can create psychic shields and barriers, both offensively and defensively (like creating a shield around her fist, so her punches hit harder). But, the virus made her germaphobic. Always wears a surgical mask and doesn't like being touched. Otherwise a pleasant, nice girl.

3. "The Reverend." A computer science professor at the university, who is schizophrenic. A mathematical genius with a doctorate, but is nearly legally retarded in all other subjects. Very socially awkward. He is the perfect spy and infiltrator. Each one of his fingers can be used as different weapons or objects - for example, his right index finger is a silenced pistol, one of his pinkies can morph into a key that fits any lock, another finger can be used as a needle that injects Propofol (an anesthetic), etc. Usually does covert op information gathering. Avoids killing when possible.

4. Someone that can manipulate sound, but became completely blind. Carries around a sound player that constantly emits a noise that humans can't hear, which they use as sonar, so they can "see" with the sound that rebounds off of things. Hated by animals because of the noise.

5. The Commanding Officer of the UN's bomb squad that was on campus gained the power to tell people what to do - complete command over someone's actions. They do whatever he tells them to do. But, the virus made him completely senile, and he rarely can actually use his power.

6. "The Pharaoh." This person was killed instantly from the explosion of the bomb. However, his charred corpse was reanimated by the virus. The UN wrapped him up, making him look like a mummy. He can manipulate his wrappings precisely, and also turn his body into sand. But, he's a shambling corpse, and can only shuffle around. He's also brain dead, and must be given very specific orders in order to do anything. No one knows who he was before the explosion, his corpse was too badly burned to identify.

7. A person whose body functions became perfected. By that, I mean their senses were heightened far beyond human level (see things clearly from a mile away, hear a pin drop from hundreds of yards away). It's said that humans can only use 1/10th of their brain power, and don't use their muscles to their full capacity. However, this person can use 20% of their brain power, and force their body to beyond human strength, speed, and precision. But, the human body isn't meant to be used that much. If the person goes full speed and strength for too long, they completely tear apart their muscles, and their heart has a chance of completely shutting down. This person suffers from the delusion that they are in manga. Constantly breaks the fourth wall, while the other characters just brush it off as "they're insane."

8. A guy who has adrenaline pumping at all times. Can perform supernatural feats of strength, and has insane reflexes. Suffers from ADHD, and must be put into a medical coma every night in order to sleep, because of all the adrenaline.

9. The leader of the UN's peacekeeping group. Has the power over other's powers. Can copy the powers of other Survivors that are nearby, and can negate or amplify other's powers. Has turrets.

Those are the only combos that I've completely nailed down. Other powers that I have ideas for (but no characters to attach them to) are:

1. Water/ice
2. Glass manipulation
3. Animal transformations (used for assassinations, gets close as an insect, turns into a venomous animal, kills the target, goes back to being an insect, gets away without anyone being the wiser).
4. Covered in tattoos, and can bring those tattoos into reality. Pretty much a way to summon weapons/guardians.
5. Gravity. Can increase the gravity of someone or something so much, that they start attracting other objects. Or the usual lifting someone off the ground/smashing them on the ground. At the full strength of their power, can increase the gravity of something so much that it creates a black hole.
6. Diamond manipulation (or more specifically, Carbon manipulation).
7. Control over the human body. Can either heal, or tear someone to pieces just by touching them.
8. Here's the big overpowered ability - electromagnetic radiation control. The electromagnetic spectrum (depending on its wavelength) includes radio waves, microwaves, the visible light spectrum, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma waves. They can control what other people can see with the light spectrum, pick up or send out radio waves, or just microwave someone. Usually just creates illusions to kill people. Very sadistic, and never shows anyone what they really look like.

You may have noticed that I never mentioned the main character. That's because I don't know what kind of powers or disorders the main character should have. But, the MC is a jaded, sarcastic, and misanthropic guy, that's always done what other people have told him to do. He objectively watches how the world plays out, but makes no opinions on his own. He grows as the story progresses, becoming more decisive, wanting to ensure peace in the world. Someone /a/ can relate to.

I haven't really gone far with the whole story or characters, just the setting. So, this can be a group effort, if this is what you're into.

Metoma wrote:(...)The human psyche is separated into 3 parts - the id, the ego, and the superego. (...)

Freud up in this motherfucker.

Metoma wrote:It's said that humans can only use 1/10th of their brain power

That's just a myth, actually. Humans use most if not all of their brain.

Lukalade wrote:
That's just a myth, actually. Humans use most if not all of their brain.

is it? I admit, I didn't do much research on that one.