13 / MAR / 2022

Ya know, I'm still thinking about writing a novel/la, but I've had too many ideas with varying levels of "fleshed-outedness" that obviously never went far enough to be fully-fledged novel/las.

If you've been keeping up with this site since the beginning, you might remember my mention of "CusServ," which was supposed to be a cyberpunk action story told from the perspective of background characters. Rather than an epic quest to take down corrupt overlords, the change in perspective would turn it into the story of a terroristic renegade destroying buildings and slaughtering government officials. Papers, Please was a partial influence in this idea, since that game funnels a whole story about international struggles, war crimes, etc. through the eyes of one guy stamping "yes" or "no" on passports.

I've also had two other ideas worth sharing: One about an innocent man being kidnapped, and another about a post-apocalypse taking place after the awakening of an eldritch god.

The one about the guy being kidnapped is (sort of) in the works, although I don't have much work done on it. The title is Wrong Guy, and the main character is just a regular person who works part-time as a radio DJ. However, his brother owes money to the Turkish mafia, and so the main character's been kidnapped as ransom. If the brother doesn't give $800,000 in a week, the main character will get killed.
A week passes, and nothing happens. No money, and no release. It's when the main character is about to be killed when he fully realizes that his brother simply left him for dead. The adrenaline kicks in and he manages to kill the two thugs keeping him hostage. I'm not exactly certain how the scene would go, but I do want his victory to be a total and obvious fluke. he survives one encounter, but now he has to escape through an industrial complex that's under full control of the gang.
Because he's a normal guy, he's ill-equipped for pretty much any confrontation. Frail stature, no weapons know-how, and a psyque unfit for to-the-death conflict. The only way he can get out is to be born as a new man through a baptism by fire.

The last idea I have is really, really undeveloped, but I've enjoyed playing with it for the past few weeks. The setting is in a post-apocalypse where cities have been reduced to overgrown rubble, and the theme is a bit similar to Berserk. The apocalyptic event is referred to as The Banquet, where the moon hatched and gave birth to a cosmic god. This god would use Earth as its nest, consuming souls and shaping land as it hones its power before the time comes for it to leave. During The Banquet, this god ate innumerable souls, plucking them away one-by-one and leaving Earth at a quarter of its initial population. While The Banquet resulted in loss of souls, the power given off by the god would end up multiplying the potency of leftover souls.
Now, I'm not exactly sure if this is the route I want to take, but I feel like Native American ceremonies could end up being a motif to display the newfound potency of the world's spirits. There's an aim to evoke the spirits of various animals in most ceremonial dances, and through the potency of souls, these evokations would end up giving rise to actual spirits. A dance for an eagle, for example, could produce a phoenix or a firebird. Again, this idea is something I'm more just playing around with than anything else, plus I don't want to misrepresent things on accident and cause a stir because of it.
In any case, this idea is up in the air and probably won't get anywhere, but it's been really fun to think about.

Oh yeah, I'm also thinking up some ways to make my site look better without resorting to a full CSS overhaul. I've been brainstorming ideas for a header image, but haven't been able to come up with anything good, and I talked to a pixel artist to see if he can do a new background for me. Things are up in the air... And that's really all I have to say.

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