Many Cases, One Truth

This week's challenge is:

SURPRISE!

Feel free to surprise your readers along with the characters. :) A proposal, a party, a pregnancy-any of them can be the basis for a surprise.

The surprise doesn't have to be pleasant though. For example, there are several stories that reveal Yusaku Kudo to be the true boss of the Black Organization. How about coming up with a rational way that another character can be the true boss instead? Have fun!

After reading about the snaggletooth fashion craze in Japan, I can't help but wonder how this latest challenge can be interpreted by writers:

FASHION

Before I list any ideas, please take a moment to simply think about Detective Conan/Magic Kaito and fashion together to see if any wild ideas pop up. Feel free to share them!

This is probably going to be a hard challenge because the only characters I can think of that MIGHT be fashion-concious are Ai, Sonoko, Yukiko, Chikage, and Vermouth. It doesn't help that Detective Conan has been around for a really long time. I think though that adding a fashion craze into the background of your fic can help make it feel like time is actually passing. It suggests that this is the current fashion, the past fashion is now out of style, and the current fashion will eventually be replaced. You don't have to use an actual fashion either. Make up a new popular slang word, invent a new game that everyone's playing, etc.

A more specific idea is that one of the female characters tries to do something fashionable that is rumored to help get her the guy of her dreams. This can be Ran trying to get Shinichi to come back, Sonoko making an grab for Kaitou Kid/Makoto's attention, or Kazuha attempting to get Heiji to notice her as a girl. Also, Shinichi and Kaito have probably both been taught how the clothes you're wearing affect people's impressions of you. Conan might use knowledge about a fashion craze to solve a case while Kaito might need the same knowledge for a disguise. That's all I can think of right now. Any more ideas?

I hope that this isn't a repeat, but this idea really caught my imagination:

APOTOXIN ALTERNATES

Everyone's probably seen summaries of stories when Shinichi is turned into a girl, but what about other possibilies? For example, what if the poison made him 10 years OLDER instead of younger? He'd have fewer restrictions on him, but it would also be more difficult for him to hide his identity. He would also need to be able to support himself without getting the Black Org. on his trail. Plus, if murders keep happening around him...

It may work if his mother intensively tutors him in disguises for a couple of months. Then the dead bodies would keep appearing around random people that the police later can't find. It may give the police a bit of a complex that all of these people are better at solving crimes than they are, at least until someone suggests that Kaitou Kid has taken up detective work.

This isn't the only possibility of course. Maybe the apotoxin was supposed to be an undetectable steriod but killed all the test subjects. How would super strength or super speed affect Shinichi's life? Considering how unscientific the apotoxin is, you could substitute a variety of super powers.

Or how about something that hurts Shinichi? You could do a pretty angsty one-shot about Shinichi with memory loss, especially if the brain damage is so that his memory loss is reoccuring. Deaf Shinichi? One issue to consider is whether the Black Org. as a whole even knows that Shinichi is supposed to be dead at first. Supposedly Gin forgets the faces of his victims, but Vodka may still speak up if Shinichi appears on TV. Hopefully, Shinichi would have some leeway at first as long as he keeps a low profile.

Finally, you can still use the Shinichi turns into a girl example, but please focus on how Shinichi turning into a girl would logically affect his life and the storyline instead of solely on your pairing. Pairings don't make a story; good writing does. Sorry if I seem condenscending here. I've read a few good gender benders, but I also see way too many stories in general that skip over logic in favor of getting two characters together.

Edit: One suggestion by ran_dezvous is to have someone else take the apotoxin instead of Shinichi. This would be alternating the victim instead of, or along with, the result. "# People Who Could Have Taken Apotoxin", anyone? :) A longer story would also be fun.

I do want to point out though that serious stories should have a logical reason for the Black Org using the apotoxin instead of a gunshot. My understanding of Gin using it in the first place was both that he wanted to try out the new poison and that he wanted to avoid the attention a gunshot would cause. One example might be that the Black Org. finds out that Kaito is the new Kaitou Kid, but they would prefer that no one look into why Kid steals things. A high school student dropping dead of unknown causes is not obviously murdered like a high school student dead from a gunshot wound would be. This is assuming that the Black Org. is the organization that shoots at Kid. Another possibility could be using a new Black Org. member that prefers to kill with poison instead of with guns.

This week's challenge is:

EXAM!

I know that those of you who just finished your finals probably don't want to think any more about tests, but school isn't the only place for exams. What about a medical exam? Did Takagi have to pass an exam to join the police? Maybe there's a special exam for Black Org members to qualify for an alcoholic name. Eri probably had to pass a bar exam to become a lawyer. Feel free to list any other ideas you come up with. After all, they may inspire plot bunnies! :)

Hello! I thought that I'd try posting a challenge. I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes here.

This week's challenge is:

TEAM

Personally, I'm a big fan of the fics where the detectives and Kaito Kid have to work together as a team, but there are other ways to apply this. For example, Shinichi/Conan is really good with a soccer ball. Why not a fic with him as part of the soccer team? Maybe a character gets recruited as a temporary stand-in for a club, if you can come up with a logical reason for it. Or how about the love interests form a team to achieve an objective? I'm not sure if 2 people qualify as a team or I'd suggest a fic about how well Vodka and Gin work together. Another possibility is that the characters are rooting for different sports teams. Those are all I can think of at the moment but I'm sure that there are loads more. Have fun!