Rejected Story Ideas from Leiko's Desk:

1) Creepy Crawly Mimi: I actually quite liked this one. Mimi Saunders was a chick who accidentally got fused with a cockroach (somehow--I forget whether it was an alien experiment or mad science or what) and gained the abilities and attributes of one. She was the first crimefighter I ever wrote about, instead of a magical girl. She was nearly invulnerable, she could fly, and she had supersenses. And she had a sensible reaction to actually gaining those attributes in the first place--"I am so calling Kate (her lawyer sister) and I'm SUING THE BASTARDS WHO DID THIS." She also dressed like a bag lady at first (big hat to cover her new antennae, long rain slicker to hide her new wings, etc.) when she was trying to figure out what to do.

2) Shaman Witch: The story itself actually never had a title, but this is the best thing I can use to describe it. It was about this chick who could combine with her familiar animal spirit and slay evil spirits. But instead of having a cute animal like a cat or a bunny or a fox, she had a rat named Salvador. Her friend (a carryover from Creepy Crawly Mimi) had a roach named Skitters. The rest of her family had cute animals to combine with--her brothers had a bear and a fox, her mom had a rabbit, her dad had an eagle--and she constantly complained about not having a cool animal. Inferiority-complex magical-girl power, make up! I never really figured out any enemies for the two to fight, but I really liked the idea of transforming into a magical spirit-critter.

3) Treasures: A girl named Evelyn Blackitt found a genie in a lava lamp, freed him, but pretty much ignored him after that. He went around causing all kinds of trouble instead of granting wishes, and both parties were cool with that. Until her neighbor--a genie-hunter--tried to trap the genie again. Then it was "aw hell naw" and... I don't remember what happened next, but for the most part, it was a cute, fluffy little story about Evelyn and Sayid (the genie).

4) Necromantic: This one is more "on hiatus" than anything else. It was about a girl with ghost powers, who had to return the spirits of the dead back to the Otherworld. She would travel all throughout her cities, try to do things with magic, and she had a couple of sidekicks named Morgan and Samuel. Morgan was a creature from Purgatory (she had been too nice to go to Hell, but too bad to go to Heaven, so she was just hovering between worlds trying to do nice things in order to get to one place or another). Samuel didn't remember what he was, but he wasn't all the way human or all the way other-creature. The girl with ghost powers had to face a battle with the previous Guardian of the Otherworld, who didn't want anybody to be the Guardian, because it was such a lonely job once all the spirits in the jurisdiction were rounded up--because they had to stand guard at the gate for five hundred years alone. I liked this one a lot, because one side wasn't "HAY I'M EVIL" and "HAY I'M GOOD." On the one side, you could see the point of Keeper Charon--nobody should be doomed to 500 years of loneliness. On ther other, it's important to keep the worlds of the dead and living separate.

5) Fairy Story: A cute little tale about fighter-fairies (a la Winx Club). There were two half-fairies in the story. The main character was a bit angsty and lonely because she was a half-fairy from the human world; all of the others looked down on her. Her name was Lucy (she had powers of light and white magic). Aerora, the other half-fairy, came from the Floating Cities in the fairy realm and thus was held in better esteem. Lucy, constantly pushed away by everyone else, made friends with a dark fairy who lived inside of a magic mirror in her school dormitory and ultimately joined that side because the dark fairy was kind to her, moreso than the "nice" fairies. The other fairies were quite surprised when the legions of the dark fairies attacked the school from within; they never suspected Lucy. I got bored with writing about Lucy and Cassidy, though, and started to focus on these two side-characters: twins, one who controlled love (Kayla) and one who controlled sound (Bell). Kayla was a photographer and a bit obsessed with portraying romance in different lights--gay, lesbian, polyamorous, etc. Bell kept begging Kayla to pair her up with whoever was in the shoot that week and was a very nosy fairy indeed. They were fun to write about.

6) Where Angels Fear to Tread: This actually made it to three or four chapters before I lost interest. It was about a fallen angel named Melilot who sought to create a new war against Heaven in the distant future. She had a few groupies who followed her around, including a gay rock star named Orpheus, a nature-spirit named Ivy, and a succubus named Lilith (who, amusingly, had a pet tentacle-monster). It was written because I was angsty and sulky and angry all the time while I was writing it. I had some kind of bitchfit about Christianity that year for some reason. But I'm okay now and the interest in writing a story where the world ends because of the supposed "good guys" has waned. Though I might keep writing about Lilith. She amused me to no end.

7) Wonderful Wasteland: An extremely warped version of Alice in Wonderland, defunct because of the same reason as #6. A girl fell into a diseased wonderland while she was depressed, only to find her godfather (who she had a crush on) was the King of Wonderland, and it was diseased because he was sad as well, that she might leave him all alone. Yeaaaaaaah. Just a little frickin' strange relationship there... I might make her costume, though. Her costume was cute.

8) System Failure: I love the idea still, but I know doodly shit about computers, and since that's what the story revolves around, it turned out sounding very silly. It was about a civilization way-in-the-future who depended on computers for EVERYTHING. And they could transport themselves into the computer to check their email. Kind of like virtual reality... but real. If that makes any sense. Anyway, there was a bug in the computers and THE WORLD PANICKED. One of the Admins (the four people who ruled the world because they controlled the computers) had put a bug in there, and the other three looked to find someone to help them. A girl named Alyce Harper logged in and got stuck in there, met the King of Hearts (one of the Admins), and became a scifi magical-girl who could transform into four different forms to defeat viruses and clean up the computers. I think it'd make a better videogame than a story, actually.

9) Wonderland Circus: More of a side-story to Carpe Noctem than anything else. The Wonderland Circus has a HUGE part in Carpe Noctem, so I don't suppose I'll spoil you by listing a lot of specifics here.

10) A Fairy Tale Nightmare: Two magical girls, Snow White and Rose Red, fought against the Witch Queen, who ate hearts in order to gain power and rule the world. I like how surreal and strange the story was, but I think it'd translate better to comic book than writing. A lot of fairy tales were referenced, because I'm a geek like that. Snow White and Rose Red, of course; Red Riding Hood; Cinderella; Hansel and Gretel (who had a freaky incestuous relationship); The Little Mermaid. The Witch Queen would grant anybody's wishes if only she was allowed to eat their heart whenever she wanted. And once their heart was gone, they turned into a hideous raging beast. Snow White and Rose Red had to restore their hearts and defeat the Queen once and for all.

I actually quite like all of these stories, but most of them would translate better to comic-book or cartoon medium, and I absolutely FAIL at drawing. Well, action-wise. I can draw people just standing around or posing in costumes pretty well. But if I try to draw people moving around, they look like they're freaking marionettes.