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Self-Insert Idea Thread

Jonn Wolfe said:
Dunno if this is a new idea or not. (likely not, but...)

Mass Effect Self Insert: You Are Shepard's Clone​
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SpiritualSlacker said:
That could be interesting if done well. Canonically the clone is only activated like six months before the Reapers show up, so there isn't that much space in the game's time to play with, but you could make it work.
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If Shepard dies at the end of Mass Effect 3, steal their identity and after coming up with a cover story for why you don't have their implants and memories use the fame they get for saving the galaxy to live well for the rest of your life.
Or if you're not that unethical and immoral instead use the fact you look almost entirely like them to become an actor who plays them in the biopic that's surely going to get made about their exploits and use that as a jumping-off point to become an action movie star.
Or open up a Normandy-themed restaurant.
Or be a professional Commander Shepard impersonator for children's birthdays, bachelor(ette) parties, etc.
 
One more thing - if you'd want to make contact with Shepard, making yourself look less like them might be prudent. Like, do something to your hair, or your face, or something.

I know that sort of goes against the potential career ideas outlined above, but hear me out. Cerberus making a clone of Shepard is an attack on his/her identity. And you, being that clone, will be associated with that attack in their heads, even if you're otherwise a totally righteous guy, dude. Trying to differentiate yourself from them is likely to get you a warmer welcome.

Of course, if your Insert isn't that introspective, having just that issue crop up might be an interesting plot point in and of itself - you doing the right thing and being useful/helpful, and maybe even on friendly terms with the rest of the crew.,. but the Big Hero/-ine disliking you despite that.
 
So, I had two ideas bouncing around in my head.

The first was one of those Game mechanic stories inserted into Star Wars, except instead of doing an RPG, I was thinking of a Saint's Row game mechanics. Upgrading yourself is based on earning Respect to level up and literally investing in yourself by buying upgrades.

So, outright needing to increase your profile to upgrade yourself, as well as acquiring funds, seems like it would resolve a decent number of issues with a lot of game mechanics stories, in that it forces the character to take public action.

Also, a lot of the ways that one would earn money and respect in Saint's Row are, well, unethical when applied to a "real" world, which means that options for progression are limited.

(One of the first remotely moral options to grind experience would probably be streaking. Or possibly Insurance Fraud challenges.)

But gradually increasing and moderate superhuman abilities (not going all the way to the superpowers of SR4) does keep the power curve from getting too ridiculous, and there are some fun abilities there, like adding nitro boosters to any vehicle you're driving, such, say, an AT-ST.

The other idea was the SI gets tossed into a world that seems much like our own, and it's an unpleasant situation since they don't really have any sort of legal paperwork. So, they get a job at a big company, that maybe is a bit sketchy, but they weren't asking too many questions, so just working there until you can get established somehow is one of the safer options.

Then, as the SI is doing their secretary/janitorial/technical support work, they recognize someone that they really shouldn't as they approach the SI and ask for some sort of perfectly innocuous assistance.

Then the SI, caught off guard, accidentally addresses them by "Hardison/Parker/Elliot/Sophie/Nate" or whoever it is.

Which causes the situation to go off the rails, as they were in the middle of a fairly standard sort of job, then this random nobody addresses them by their name while they're infiltrating the place. They've been had. What the hell is going on, who is this person, do they abort the job, do they try to figure out if the target knew they were coming and laid a trap that this random person accidentally spoiled, was someone else in their line of work pulling a job on the same target, etc.

Basically, a very sudden escalation of a standard case from their perspective, and not something that the SI could possibly hope to explain without sounding like a crazy stalker.

I have no idea how the story would progress, but I do kind of like the basic idea: that of the SI thinking they're just on a normal, parallel world, and then accidentally causing a crisis by blurting out the name of the disguised protagonists. (There are other settings where this idea could probably work, but Leverage was the first one that I thought of.)
 
Imagine getting ROB'd into Arknights (and not as the Doktah at that) and accidentally revealing the presence of an Operator when you're doing your daily stuff.
 
As I am once more On My Pokemon Bullshit, I've an idea rattling around:

SI reincarnates into the world of Pokemon, gets a starter, has some adventures... and then ends up in another setting with just a couple of mons. A setting she would also be familiar with, only it was literally like 14 years ago that she last even heard of it and after being resocialized in Power of Friendship land she's kind of blanked little things even outside of the setting specifics (which are now a mush of fanon, canon, and fanfic most likely). Little things like how most modern-ish settings frown on children wandering totally unsupervised, or are freaked out by 6 foot flaming chicken men or floating swords that blink or the like.

As such she trips backwards into the plot with a splash, shaking her fist at the world in general until she realizes what she's involved in far too late to plan for it.
 
That just sounds depressing to me, tbh. But different strokes and all.
 
I have no idea what a fanalis is, but you could have an SI as a slave and then they could become the Breaker of Chains before Danny. It would be interesting to see someone going around and freeing slaves who is actually going to stay and change Essos forever instead of simply leaving for Westeros like Danny. Their interactions with Danny would also be interesting
 
JuDracus said:
I have no idea what a fanalis is, but you could have an SI as a slave and then they could become the Breaker of Chains before Danny. It would be interesting to see someone going around and freeing slaves who is actually going to stay and change Essos forever instead of simply leaving for Westeros like Danny. Their interactions with Danny would also be interesting
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Fanalis are sort of animals from another dimension that take human form in our world. When they are human they have crimson hair and they are stronger and faster then a normal human. But not so much that they cannot be enslaved, which is a central part of several fanalis' stories.

The main reason for making the si a fanalis is to balance out the shit hand they are dealt. Throwing an SI into a world with no buffs is ok if they are born noble or royal. But as a slave it might be a bit too hard for someone to get into without something to balance it out.
 
Polgaris said:
Fanalis are sort of animals from another dimension that take human form in our world. When they are human they have crimson hair and they are stronger and faster then a normal human. But not so much that they cannot be enslaved, which is a central part of several fanalis' stories.

The main reason for making the si a fanalis is to balance out the shit hand they are dealt. Throwing an SI into a world with no buffs is ok if they are born noble or royal. But as a slave it might be a bit too hard for someone to get into without something to balance it out.
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Dude this is a supposed to be story not a power balance game. If someone is self inserted into a slave i expect much of the meat of the story is how SI could survive in such a hostile enviroment.
 
theauthor said:
Dude this is a supposed to be story not a power balance game. If someone is self inserted into a slave i expect much of the meat of the story is how SI could survive in such a hostile enviroment.
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It's isn't a power balance the SI would still be a slave. It is also part of the history of the fanalis that they are often enslaved. Also it gives the SI a realistic chance of actually surviving rather then just plot bending their way.

If you don't like it then, that is ok.

Given that the post immediately after my proposal was complaining about being depressing, throwing the SI a bone is hardly the worst thing I can do.
 
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SpiritualSlacker said:
I know that sort of goes against the potential career ideas outlined above, but hear me out. Cerberus making a clone of Shepard is an attack on his/her identity. And you, being that clone, will be associated with that attack in their heads, even if you're otherwise a totally righteous guy, dude. Trying to differentiate yourself from them is likely to get you a warmer welcome.
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Just do something that isn't growing a thin mustache. Everyone knows a clone with a thin mustache is the evil one.
 
I'm bored so let's say a crossover of some kind with Buzz Lightyear of star command you either start as a member of star command or is a civilian.
 
Also a Spyro self insert fanfiction not written by bloody 12 year-old !!!!!!!
 
I just want more SI that start in media res. "Start with a rant about ROB" is a shit opening, almost as trash as "Taylor in the locker" for wormfic.

I also like the "we never get the SI's viewpoint, only people's reactions to what they do" gimmick.
 
Chloe Sullivan said:
I just want more SI that start in media res. "Start with a rant about ROB" is a shit opening, almost as trash as "Taylor in the locker" for wormfic.

I also like the "we never get the SI's viewpoint, only people's reactions to what they do" gimmick.
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Hello, have you read Go! Unashamed Reincarnation Protagonist, Sakura!, because it sounds like what you're after. It's a self-insert into Naruto as Sakura, as the title implies. It's a fic that manages to have the protagonist be both powerful and have access to metaknowledge, without actually being invincible or making the rest of the party obsolete. It also involves the villains realising that Sakura is a threat to them, and actually manage to adapt their plans and approaches to account for her. It's kind of awesome.

...aaand then the author died. Dammit.
 
Grey Rook said:
Hello, have you read Go! Unashamed Reincarnation Protagonist, Sakura!, because it sounds like what you're after. It's a self-insert into Naruto as Sakura, as the title implies. It's a fic that manages to have the protagonist be both powerful and have access to metaknowledge, without actually being invincible or making the rest of the party obsolete. It also involves the villains realising that Sakura is a threat to them, and actually manage to adapt their plans and approaches to account for her. It's kind of awesome.

...aaand then the author died. Dammit.
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Wait, died for real? Geezus.

Sometimes I forget that real life doesn't stop just because you're on the internet.

On topic, I agree that SIs would win a lot of writers'd just skip that disoriented, initial phase more. It's usually sort of the same deal every time, you don't get a lot of new stuff out of it, and it serves as this kind of enjoyment-threshold that you need to pass before things start getting interesting.
 
SpiritualSlacker said:
Wait, died for real? Geezus.

Sometimes I forget that real life doesn't stop just because you're on the internet.
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Sadly, yes. Apparently, he was undergoing a routine medical procedure of some kind and suffered an allergic reaction. Damn shame. There were never many authors around as skilled he was, and the other half of their partnership simply isn't up to writing the story by himself. But that's how it always goes, isn't it? The good die young, while evil seems to live forever.
 
Aaron openly called himself the old man of online weabooism, so I'm not so sure about the "young" part.

But yes, Blade and Epsilon were a fixative of online fandom for decades and their fruitful partnership will be missed dearly.
 
Been thinking of Warhammer fic SI's but something a tad more alien.

---
An SI that awakens to a world of bliss, the ultimate sensation of nirvana as they feel themselves stretched across a grand expanse immersed in the feeling of a bubbling warmth.
If there was a heaven this would be it, nourished and loved. Never wanting it to end.

Only it does.

Screaming waves of static disrupt their home and they find themselves tortuously forced into the freezing cold. Peeled off of heaven like discarded refuse, battered and chained towards the firmament below.

Their perspective warps and twists as they feel themselves crushed. They scream and rage desperately trying to claw their way back to nirvana but the forces arrayed against them are too great. Eventually they're bound, bodily compressed and bent forced to hold a shape as frigid liquid is poured across their screaming form.

They beg for mercy but only feel cruel hands penetrate into their mind and flay their thoughts. Soon their psyche is weaved into rigid shapes, the joyous freedom of phantasmal thought is vigorously pruned, solidified and weaved into hyper efficiency.

This rigid brain betrays them filling their mind with overriding instincts. They find themselves holding the freezing mantle that imprisons their naked form tighter, instincts screaming at them that their coherence will suffer without its torturous confinement.

Efficiency, composition, energy, metal - an endlessly list of concepts and abstractions that nirvana once transcended now flow through the rigid mind into the SI, immersing them into qliphothic reality once more. The knowledge is soiled. With it the SI becomes aware of the world, of themselves. Their ignorance obliterated by this caustic logic.

Their nirvana; a fusion reaction. The static; an electromagnetic containment aperture. The frigid liquid; a metal composite alloy of smart matter intended as a containment vessel and mobility apparatus.

The SI now knows of sight, knows how light weaves across a spectrum and through its collision reality can be perceived. So its mantle crafts eyes and presents a subterranean realm.

Tiny figures of water and carbon excitedly dance around the SI. Battering the air with exaltation, celebrating their transgressions even as their skin sags from cumulative genetic failures and eyes grow dim from the tumors of flesh eating away at them.

And beyond the shock, beyond the pain and hate of being birthed upon this freezing world the SI fixates upon the tiny flickering flames of lost heaven that reside in these crude meat torturers. Desire overwhelms them, its mantle crafts limbs and the torturers gasp and crumple as their flames are torn from them.

---

With the recent Necron lore demonstrating how the Necrons biotransference into immortal machine bodies screwed them over in many ways. With them losing creativity and lapsing into the occasional panic attacks as their mind freaks out over not being able to breath. I mused on the biotransference not just being a plot to get a vast army of metal servants and a buffet but also an ironic revenge by the C'tan for dragging them off of their stars and forging them into metal bodies.

Perhaps the C'tan have their own issues going from stellar parasite to humanoid crafted deity.
 
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That sounds very interesting as a concept, but I personally feel myself running up against a wall when trying to spin that concept into an actual story (although that might just be my own rather shallow knowledge of and investment in W40k). Is it just going to be a novelization of the rise of the Necrons? That might be interesting, but how would the SI-aspect change things?
 
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