LIVE! FROM THE ULTRADOME! THE BIGGEST SPECTACLE IN ANIME AND VIDEO GAME SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT-- "Wait." "What?" "Why do you do that every time one of these things opens?" The class watched the teacher, expectantly. The teacher looked cooly back at them. "I think," Daisuke said, sifting through his teaching notes, "That Hiroshi would best explain that. Hiroshi?" "EXCITEMENT!" his easily exciteable co-teacher shouted, posing. "It gets the crowd ready to rock! It pumps them full of Zanshin, the ineffable spirit of the warrior, it imbibes them with coolness! EVERYTHING about Sports Entertainment is excitement, excitement, excitement, and driving the fans wild with hype and coolness. The repeating nature of it, seen in front of every episode, in loud letters, gets them READY TO RUMBLE!" "...and given Hiroshi's reaction, it works," Daisuke concluded. "Now, if we may continue?" --AND IMPROFANFIC! IT'S TIME FOR... { M A G I C A L C R O S S O V E R } { F I G H T I N G F E D E R A T I O N } { .-----------. } { | U-L-T-R-A | } { `-----------' } { http://www.pixelscapes.com/improfanfic } INSTRUCTIONAL OMAKE : BOOKER TRAINING 101 "...that's better," Daisuke said. "Now. All of you are prospective bookers for the Magical Crossover Fighting Federation, and--" A hand was raised. "What's a 'booker?'" "A booker," Daisuke continued, despite being interrupted, "Is a person who decides the pre-determined outcome of matches. Now, this is Sports Entertainment, not reality, thus each episode a new booker arranges matches, and continues the plot. However, the actual art of booking takes skill and--" "GUTS!" Hiroshi shouted. "Guts and enthusiasm! You have to live this stuff, breathe it, eat it, have sex with it! You've gotta BE Ultra, inside and out, and ready to render it into existence with the loving care of a.. of.. of something that gives loving care!!" "...or something to that extent," Daisuke agreed, clearing his throat. "Now. You've all reviewed the rules. We agree that they are spotty, and don't cover everything, but this was done so that they could be flexible. If you have any questions about them, you're invited to ask us in e-mail for an interpretation, or for permission to bend a rule in favor of entertaining the fans. But for now, do you have any questions?" A student raised his hand. "About new entrants.. do we have to admit new fighters in our parts?" "Naw, you don't," Hiroshi said. "I know, it's traditional. And it's the only shot you have at doing it until you can sign up again, but if you're not sure, you can pass. I'd say... if you want to add to the roster, pick someone who you know the fans will go for. That way, they'll get used in more parts than yours, and people can easily write them." "That's right," Daisuke said. "The more popular the character, the better. But that doesn't mean you have to enter a POPULAR character... just one that people will be familiar with. Or if they aren't familiar, but you feel the character brings skills, gimmicks and plot twists that add to Ultra -- which is better than popularity, in a lot of ways -- then you just need to 'introduce' the character. Slide #4, Hiroshi." Hiroshi looked up from his can of Jolt. "Huh?" "The slides. Go to slide four, please." "I thought you were bringing them..." Daisuke sighed. It was hard to get good help these days. He looked up. "Could the current omake booker please warp reality for a moment? It would really help us." A box of slides came into being on the teacher's desk. "Thank you," Daisuke said, while Hiroshi loaded them. "Here we have some instructional examples. Bear in mind these are just samples we thought up, and not hard and fast rules. What works for us may not be what works for you, and so on..." "...but it's still stuff we recommend," Hiroshi said. "Okay, slide four." *click* Nosebleeds errupted. "...that's the 'Hardcore Sex Match' slide from the What Not To Try section later in the lesson, Hiroshi. Try again." Pause. "Hiroshi?" "Hang on, I'm busy." He stared at the screen a bit longer. "Okay, that's enough for me." *click* "...ah, good. Here we have Ryu, from Street Fighter. Now, he is popular, indeed, and very easy to write because his personality is about as thrilling as pudding. He has some links to Akuma, Sakura and Ken, though, which could give him potential. But the question is, will people WANT to write for Ryu? If he's just his normal meditative warrior self, he could prove to be duller than dirt. Here, it's all in the packaging. If he has plot lead-ins, not just a blow by blow fight in your episode, he could work. Next slide, please?" *click* "Here we have Nobou, from Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Memories'. He- -" "Who?" Hiroshi asked. "--exactly. Who? In this case, the character may be too obscure to go very far in Ultra. Of course, if sufficent background is given, so that future bookers can understand his personality and his goals, it's possible -- but another problem is that Nobou is, in fact, a skilless salaryman who emits a death plague from his skin. Not exactly much of a fighter, and impossible to defeat. His character is not quite compatable with any of the three divisions, so even with backup, he's not going to work." "...so, in summary, we recommend 1) using character people may at least have a passing familiarity with," Hiroshi said, counting off each point on his fingers, "2) giving background information to the nines so people can write this new entrant without any pre-existing knowledge, 3) picking a fighter who will expand Ultra in some way and mix with the existing fighters, 4) avoiding entering someone just because it would 'be cool' if they have problems with the above and 5) introducing those babes from 'Voltage Fighter Gowcaiser' in a pudding-stripper match." The students took frantic notes, before Daisuke corrected. "Number five is Hiroshi's suggestion, not mine. Anyway... let's move on. Hiroshi, slide ten, please." *click* "Ah. Here you see two men in tights grappling with each other. No, this is not gay pornography, it's professional wrestling, the roots of Sports Entertainment and the basis on which Ultra was founded." "That's right, Daisuke!" Hiroshi chirped in with. "In fact, a lot of the ideas for Ultra are right out of the World Wrestling Federation, mixed together with the Beta Tournament. The freestyle episodic nature is from WWF, while the characters and attitudes are straight out of Beta!" "But there's one important thing to note," Daisuke warned. "While the fighting of Beta was done as a ladder tournament, there is more to Ultra than just the fighting. Beta had an ongoing plot, with villians and machinations and character relations, and so does Ultra. But Ultra also carries some plot standards that the WWF does, which aid in setting up exciting conflicts that span episodes, rather than tournament steps which can eliminate fighters or make them never face each other again." "That's right, Daisuke!" "Please stop repeating that." "In fact, BECAUSE fighters can meet each other again and grapple for titles, it makes more sense for them to ally, befriend, betray and other bewords! Safety in numbers, especially with folks like the Orochi recruiting people to his way of thinking. That's why I proudly present the concept of 'Stables!'" "Which are not for horses." Thick pause. "Daisuke, you ... almost made a joke," Hiroshi said, shocked. "It was not a very good one. Regardless, a 'stable' of fighters is not like a 'team'. A tag team is a unit of two fighters, and can be considered a small stable, but a stable is actually a group of fighters under a common name, a common cause or a common ideology. They tend to back each other up in fights, with semi-illegal assists such as distracting opponents, tossing weapons like folding chairs into the ring, or 'punking' someone backstage between fights in revenge. Safety in numbers; your allies can interfere in fights, and frequently do, to give you an advantage." "That's right, Daisuke! All very good reasons to join a stable. A good example of a stable would be all the Orochi- oriented fighters... Orochi, Naga, and the sideline participants Yashiro and Shermie. They band together under a common ideology (the void) and have enemies, such as the rebel Iori, and Lina Inverse, who has repeatedly stood up to them." "But currently," Daisuke noted, "This is the only stable in Ultra, and it doesn't have a name, common theme song, and they don't act as a unit very often towards common goals. While a stable is made of individuals, things can get very exciting when stables wage war on each other.. sending individual members into the ring to do battle and represent each other." "Of course, having sixty thousand people in one 'Good Guy' stable and sixty thousand in a 'Bad Guy' stable can get very boring. Which is why they're kept small enough, and rarely is it an Us and Them Only situation," Hiroshi stated. "Not only that, but often, you'll find members leaving a stable or joining based on anger at another member, or a recent friendship, or a misunderstanding. Backstabbing is half the fun of forming trusting relationships, after all." They paused, since they had been yammering back and forth for awhile and some narrator comments were required, such as pointing out the students quickly taking notes and mumbling wonderment about this being on the test. "Another aspect of the WWF that can come into play is the variance in fights," Daisuke resumed. "Not only straight I-beat- on-you-until-you're-down fights, but there are hardcore fights where falls count anywhere and any objects can be brought into play (which is done as the standard method in Omega)... steel cage matches where the goal is to climb out of the cage and onto the ground outside, meaning you have to stun or knock your opponent out long enough to do so... ladder matches, where the title is placed on a hook and the first person to set up a folding ladder and grab it is the winner... and any other variation. As stated in the rules, as long as both fighters agree to a change in the type of fight they do, anything is possible." "That's right, Dai--" "Don't make me smack you, Hiroshi." "--suke. Ah. Anyway... yes. Variation keeps the audience interested, and mixes things up so each fight is more than a simple swapping of blows. Now, not all fights are gimmick fights, but the occasional one helps shake up expectations!" "Other things you can do when booking, outside of the strictly fictional world of Sports Entertainment, are to solicit opinions or even votes from your fellow readers on your matchups. Beta was driven by votes, and if you're ambitious, you may want to try it for your individual part as well. Communication facilities are available at Improfanfic headquarters which should prove adequate." "Finally, because this is the last thing we could think of before getting here to teach this class," Hiroshi said, "Another fun thing to do is to coordinate with authors in future episodes. Say you want to set up a rivalry between A and B." "There aren't any fighters named A or B, Hiroshi." "It's an EXAMPLE, doof. So, you want A and B to fight, but you want it to be more than a plot element that starts and ends in your episode. So, you can declare that they'll battle it out in the next episode, or the one after or whatever! But if you do this, it's a VERY good idea to e-mail the author of that part, and make sure they're interested in helping. After all, if they aren't interested in writing that fight or feel they don't know the characters well enough, it's cruel to stick them with doing it anyway. But you never know, and perhaps some arrangement can be made -- and Sports Entertainment history, in the process!" "These are just examples of potential energy still available in Ultra, of course, told through a fictional context to imaginary students," Daisuke spoiled. "But hopefully, they'll stir up some thinking, and we'll see what happens. Please don't look at this as the Word of Kasumi, but simply guidelines, ideas and brainstorming. For now, Hiroshi and I need to hurry off to the next episode of Ultra." "That's RIGHT! And it's gonna be an old fashioned slobbernocker, I tell you!" "A what?" "Say goodnight, Daisuke." "Goodnight, Daisuke." -2f