Here's an idea that I've originally had for a NSFW story, but could be easily reworked for a SFW one. Just for the record, though, I highly doubt that I will get around to writing it down into an actual story anytime soon. I'm just putting here because I want to hear second opinions on it; who knows, I might attract some constructive criticism that helps refine what I have, even if only by a little bit.
The premise of the story, which would take place in a completely mundane world not much unlike our own, would revolve around the following characters (all in their mid-20s).
Mamie Aikino (written 愛木野 真実恵 in kanji)
I would not fault you for assuming that this is an OC simply due to the unfamiliarity of the name. But in truth, Mamie is only an OC in the most technical of terms, because she's an amalgamation of Makoto Kino and Minako Aino, in both looks and personality, into a single character (which, of course, doesn't exist in canon, hence technically being an OC).
Speaking of backstories... She was born to a Japanese mother from a British father, with the latter dying before the girl was even born and the former dying a few years later. She was left in the care of apathetic relatives who only bothered with the bare minimum of their legal obligations, leaving her alone to face discrimination from practically everywhere around her over her mixed ancestry, which was practically advertized 2/47 by her naturally mixed blonde/brown hair and not entirely Japanese facial features, and further compounded when said ancestry manifested in her unusual tallness and bustiness by Japanese standards. It's largely thanks to her seeing a concert by a famous pop star whose history resonated with hers that she persevered and worked hard to improve herself, until she finally found herself following in her idol's footsteps and gaining a devoted fandom that cares not for such petty ideas as "racial purity" or "social conformism".
The story proper wouldn't be about any of that, though. Rather, it would take place after she has already reached the top, basking in fame, wealth, and a revolving door of both boyfriends and girlfriends (mostly the latter; she kinda got disillusioned with male lovers after the first few she had, and discovered she was a more-into-girls-than-boys bisexual)... and realizing that her life still has a painfully vacant space for true love.
Note: "Mamie" derives from the initials of "
Makoto" and "
Minako", with a secondary
unintentional reference to Mami Tomoe from
Puella Magi Madoka Magica (because she shares Makoto's "talent"). The "e" comes from the last kanji, 恵, meaning "blessing".
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Dr. Ami Mizuno, MD, PhD
In this world, Ami had been found to be a child prodigy just as she entered elementary school, and in a stroke of luck, her mother knew dependable European and American colleagues with connections to presitigious universities who helped her set up an appropiate distance-education program for little Ami to bypass Japan's rigid adherence to egalitarian education*. In this way, she managed to earn her first degrees in computer science, biology, psychology and medicine by the time she was in the middle of Japanese high school, and upgrade them all the way to doctorates by her early 20s, paving the way for her to become a leading figure in the world scientific community.
Like Mamie, though, the story would not explore all this backstory in detail. Instead, it would focus on the little-known fact that she's an avid fan of Mamie Aikino, but is so embarrassed about it due to both having a romantic crush on her and being considerably older than the average Mamie fan at said star's public events (most of the attendees tend to be in the mid-to-late teens) that she never goes to one without heavily disguising herself (and pretending to have a cold to justify wearing a face-mask).
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Rei Hino
This world's Rei has pretty much the same backstory as the canon one, only she ironically ended up venturing into the world of politics after his persistent support of his (fictional) party's misogynistic/male-chauvinist platform eventually led him to pretty much walk all over the memory of the late Risa Hino (Rei's mother, for those who don't recognize the name), and Rei essentially inspired the creation of a new feminist movement that managed to rock the Japanese political scene to its core in just a handful of years, and remains a leading figure of this movement despite technically being neither a career politician nor holding any official position in the new politicial party that coalesced out of said movement. That is, her actual job is still "priestess of the Hikawa Shrine". (Speaking of which, her grandfather plans to have her succeed him as chief priest, which would make her the first women to do so in the Hikawa shrine's history.)
Again, backstory is backstory, while Rei's part of the actual story focuses on her struggle with what to think of Mamie Aikino. On the one hand, Mamie is an icon to mixed-ancestry Japanese women who face subtle but prevalent discrimination throughout Japanese society. On the other hand, Mamie is not quite what Rei would call a good role model for women, what with how promiscuous she is; then again, even Rei wouldn't go as far as calling Mamie a slut, it's just that it's easy for highly impressionable teens to mistakenly believe that Mamie's lifestyle is validation for sluttiness and act accordingly. And on the
third hand, Mamie used to attend the same elementary school as Rei, where sometime before Rei left for a Catholic all-girls academy after graduation, Mamie told her of her ambitious dream, prompting Rei to skeptically question whether Mamie could pull it off.
And on the
fourth hand, for the first time in her life, Rei found herself falling for a woman, and it just had to be Mamie.
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Now, I'm going to be honest: The whole thing started with me imagining a scene where Mamie (originally under the placeholder name of "Makoto" simply because was at the time more or less a "Makoto's looks, Minako's personality" kind of composite), Ami, and (in a latest iteration) Rei are all snuggled up to each other in bed at Mamie's luxurious home, basking in the newfound love that they've all been pining for.
The problem? I have no idea how to do step 2 in the following plan for the story.
- Start with the three girls being single (or, in Mamie's case, without a long-term lover).
- Introduce the three girls to each other.
- Develop the three-way romance until they finally become a trio of girlfriends.
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* No, not making this up; the Japanese education system refuses to recognize intellectual giftedness and treats all students as effectively interchangeable, prizing "effort to achieve" over any sort of innate ability (which is probably a byproduct of certain aspects of the nation's culture itself).