Matter

[Tam]

*makes goofy logo* *is such a dork* =D

I guess this should still technically be called a NaNo, seeing as "November" doesn't actually factor into the NaNoWriMo acronym-portmanteau thing (is there a word for that sort of construction? xD; Now I'm all curious). But I am still calling it a JulNo. For clarity's sake. *heroic pose*

Edit: Julno is a stupid word.

Anyway! Hello! =D Welcome to my thread of oddness. I am going to do something different this time around, because it's not Official NaNo and I can. I'm basically doing ScriptFrenzy. My goal is to produce a completed script (hopefully of at least 100 pages) for the pilot episode of a hypothetical urban fantasy TV show.

From what I've read, a one-hour show will usually only have a 60-70 page script, so I'm either going to write a script for a 1.5 hour episode, or just complete it in 60-70 pages and do something else for the remaining script space. xD; Haven't decided yet.

So anyway, here's the pitch. *proud glow of I-learned-something-todayness!*

A female alchemist living in the heart of Montréal invents a fictional boss to draw in customers only to find out that he's a real person. The two of them tackle various paranormal crimes and slowly begin to uncover the mysterious past of the alchemist's "fictional" boss.

Story ramble, gratuitously cross-posted from my journal because I am too lazy to organize it further at this point. xD

SPOILER: Click to show

So there's this young woman, right, by the name of Iris McKellan, who runs a small herbal remedy shop in the heart of Montréal, fronting for her rather successful alchemy shop in the back. It's taken her years to win over her clientelle and build up her business's reputation in a field traditionally dominated by men, but she had a secret weapon: her boss, Xander Sluggo. Very little is known about the reclusive and enigmatic alchemist, but it is said that he is intelligent and bold beyond measure (and even more charming, of course). Over the years, the legend surrounding Sluggo has rained fame and fortune down on the little shop. As Iris is well aware, seeing as it was her imagination that spawned him five years ago.

Things are going quite well for her — but then, one night, when the moon is full and the wind is silent, Xander Sluggo shows up on her doorstep.

...All hell breaks loose.

SPOILER: Click to show

Okay so I was surprised to realize that this isn't a romance. At least, not predominantly. I mean, I had just kind of assumed it would be — motivated young businesswoman and infuriatingly cheerful dashing alchemist going off on wild adventures and all that, not to mention our friends Emmaline and Remington — but no, it doesn't work. At all. Not for them. Iris is too stalwart. xD She won't let herself be tamed, and she'll have none of Xander's shenanigans. I mean, I'm sure Xander would be all for a swoonful romance since he pretty much flirts with anything that moves, but that's his fault for being such a poorly fleshed-out figment of Iris's imagination.

Anyway no, Iris and Xander are kickass alchemists and partners in paranormal crime-solving. They'll probably become friends, once Iris is able to stand being in Xander's company for longer than a few seconds at a time. But they aren't lovers.

I have a paranormal investigator now, though, and he might be! =D He is sweet and clumsy and he acts like a kid sometimes and names all of his electronics (all of them. And he has a lot). His name is Shadow Poole because his parents are idiots, and he's kind of an idiot himself except he's really good with paranormal cases, which is fortunate because Iris keeps getting people who come into her shop pleading for help with exorcisms and depossessions and such, which aren't really her area of expertise. Normal people get the most ridiculous notions sometimes — I guess they think that if you deal with one sector of the occult, you must know how to deal with anything remotely unusual that crops up in their everyday lives. Thankfully Iris can collaborate with Shad on cases like these — because hey, money is money — and they may or may not have a bit of a spark developing between them, because they are both energetic and adventurous and love their jobs. Unfortunately, they both love their jobs so much that they remain rather oblivious to any sign of a spark that may be developing between them.

Also I don't think I've talked about Xander that much, which is odd because Xander is... kinda the point of the story. xD He is the reason I'm not too worried about ripping off Emmaline and Remington's stories. Y'see, Xander isn't a sneaky casual con artist who just happens to be handsome enough to work his way into the heart of his inventor. He actually, truly, one-hundred percent believes he is Xander Sluggo. He acts like him. Talks like him. Knows his whole past. Knows details of himself that Iris has never told anyone. He is literally no one else but Xander Sluggo.

Thing is, Iris might not have told these things to anyone else, but she does keep a rather up-to-date diary on her computer, painstakingly recording her thoughts, ideas, and techniques. Charlie Bartlett, a rival alchemist from the Plateau borough, has been trying to figure out a way to one-up Iris for years. He's an excellent alchemist, but he's blinded by what Iris has and he doesn't. There's a morgue within easy driving distance. He's not above a bit of property theft. Or casual necromancy.

So basically, dear old Charlie (I picture him looking a bit like Colonel Sanders, for some reason — all beardy and dressed in white and respectable-lookin'. It is amusing.) tries to reanimate this cadaver by channeling the contents of Iris's computer into said corpse's brain, hoping to gain an assistant for himself who's as good at alchemy as Iris is. It is an extremely complicated process and he should be applauded for even attempting it. But of course he fails miserably. I mean, why wouldn't he. See, Cadavre Boy has just been given life. His brain could not care less about absorbing alchemical sigils and chemical formulae. His brain wants to know who he is. And with the information available to him via the computer, there is really only one possible answer.

He is Xander Sluggo.

Did I mention that I have absolutely no idea how to write a script? I probably should. Because. This might be hilarious.

*goes back to studying script writing via the ScriptFrenzy site* >.>

[Birdy]

... *small squeak* I love that description. I love stories like this, with the mysterious made-up-boss-appearing-at-work-one-day (or just mysterious made-up bosses). This is gonna be epic. <3 *can't wait to read it* ((...Assuming you don't mind sharing, that is. xD;;; ))

[Tam]

<3 Thank you so much, Birdy! *tackleglomps* And yes, I'll post however much of it I finish. xD Might just post excerpts while I'm still writing, though.

Also, obligatory mood-setting art. There is no going back now.

SPOILER: Click to show

Edit: Since I haven't given physical character descriptions yet anywhere, I should probably mention who these people are. xD The short one is Iris. The crazy one is Xander. I kinda want to draw some of the other characters too, but they'll have to wait.

[Birdy]

Jun 29, 2011 19:44:17 GMT -5 Tam said:

<3 Thank you so much, Birdy! *tackleglomps* And yes, I'll post however much of it I finish. xD Might just post excerpts while I'm still writing, though.

Also, obligatory mood-setting art. There is no going back now.

SPOILER: Click to show

Edit: Since I haven't given physical character descriptions yet anywhere, I should probably mention who these people are. xD The short one is Iris. The crazy one is Xander. I kinda want to draw some of the other characters too, but they'll have to wait.

You're very welsome! *pounces back*

Yay! =D *bounces* *wishes for a TARDIS* *remembers Spoilers and decides to be patient and wait*

...And that is a fantastic piece of art right there. 8D *nodnod*

[Rikku]

Ooh I love the feel of that. <3 Xander's clothes! Xander's clothes are awesome. And it's so. Sepia! So inexplicably but pleasantly sepia!

... Anyway.

Mm. You could make this episode longer than the season-episodes overall will be, 'cos of it being a pilot, or you could just count on wanting to cut thirty or forty pages from the finished thing when you're shinying it up after. xD ... Which is probably possible. I don't know. Scripts are odd.

*glees over this*

[Kathleen]

A script. =D You are indeed daring. This sounds like something that, were it on television, I might actually watch. =D

And the picture! I love Xander's clothing. Well. Iris's too. Also she has pretty hair. <3

[Tam]

Jun 29, 2011 19:58:51 GMT -5 Birdy said:

You're very welsome! *pounces back*

Yay! =D *bounces* *wishes for a TARDIS* *remembers Spoilers and decides to be patient and wait*

...And that is a fantastic piece of art right there. 8D *nodnod*

...Wait for the TARDIS? =D *perks up hopefully* Tell me if it shows up, okay?

Oh er. ^__^; It's just a sketch. Lazy to the extreme. But thank you. *glomps*

Jun 29, 2011 22:54:31 GMT -5 Rikku said:

Ooh I love the feel of that. <3 Xander's clothes! Xander's clothes are awesome. And it's so. Sepia! So inexplicably but pleasantly sepia!

... Anyway.

Mm. You could make this episode longer than the season-episodes overall will be, 'cos of it being a pilot, or you could just count on wanting to cut thirty or forty pages from the finished thing when you're shinying it up after. xD ... Which is probably possible. I don't know. Scripts are odd.

*glees over this*

Should mention that the only reason the picture is sepia-ish is because bright colours don't work for Iris. xD At least, not usually. Her hair is brown and her eyes are brown and her coat is brown and most of her shop is brown. Sort of a brown mood sort of thing going on. Yes.

Like Firefly! =D Yeah, I was thinking I might go with that first option you mention there. I don't think all the episodes would be an hour and a half, but the first one could be. Might need it, to work through all the preliminary who-the-heck-is-this-guy confusion.

Jun 29, 2011 23:59:32 GMT -5 Kathleen said:

A script. =D You are indeed daring. This sounds like something that, were it on television, I might actually watch. =D

And the picture! I love Xander's clothing. Well. Iris's too. Also she has pretty hair. <3

Nah, I'm just delusional, that's all. =D But thank you! I am glad to hear it! Because if I've learned one thing from reading about TV scriptwriting, it's that people will be looking for an excuse to turn off your show at every opportunity so be very very afraid.

xD Xander's clothing. Er. Author appeal again. Definitely. One hundred percent. He was going to wear an elegant coat of some description. But then I was like, "NAH, WAISTCOAT AND FEDORA. =D" It's turning into a bad habit with me. And she does! She has to keep it short, though, and it's usually scorched and slightly patchy in places.

[Tam]

It's called Matter. As in, conservation of.

Yep, this title is already a book. But I'm not giving it up. xD It's the right one. It belongs to this story.

And the first episode is called Pilot.

It is about a pilot.

[Rikku]

Titles! <3 Intriguing titles!

[Vapor]

I just want to pop in and pipe up that I, too, absolutely love this idea and shall be stalking this thread with great enthusiasm. <3 So much possibility!

[Terra]

This sounds awesome. =D I would totally watch the heck out of this show.

If it turns out that you don't need an hour-and-a-half pilot, and you still have some words left over, you could always start the second episode. XD But a longer first episode would be fine, too. I mean, Firefly did it. And Monk did it, too, though it's sometimes broken up into two parts. You could do a two-part episode, too, if you want. =D

But yeah, this looks like so much fun.

[Tam]

Jun 30, 2011 12:59:39 GMT -5 Vapor said:

I just want to pop in and pipe up that I, too, absolutely love this idea and shall be stalking this thread with great enthusiasm. <3 So much possibility!

<3 Thank you! I really appreciate it. *glomps* "Possibility" is about the best descriptor I could hope for, because the hardest part of this (for me) has been coming up with a self-contained plot for the pilot episode as well as the beginning of a story arc that could continue past this episode. xD;

Jun 30, 2011 13:11:14 GMT -5 Terra said:

This sounds awesome. =D I would totally watch the heck out of this show.

If it turns out that you don't need an hour-and-a-half pilot, and you still have some words left over, you could always start the second episode. XD But a longer first episode would be fine, too. I mean, Firefly did it. And Monk did it, too, though it's sometimes broken up into two parts. You could do a two-part episode, too, if you want. =D

But yeah, this looks like so much fun.

*glees* =D Thank you so much! And I hadn't thought of doing more than one episode. xD; I guess that's a very plausible option too. Thank you for the idea! And I didn't know about Monk (although I kind of want to), but I figured if Firefly did it, someone else must have, at some point.

---

I was cooped up in a car for most of today, so I did characters! I mean. I already had characters, obviously. But I organized them a bit more, and figured out a few more things about them.

So. Are you bored? Do you have homework you are avoiding? Perhaps you have the sudden inexplicable need to spend a great deal of time reading a large number of words written about a small number of subjects? Really? Great! Have some character descriptions!

SPOILER: Click to show

22 years old. Iris is small and unassuming, her lack of feminine decoration combining with her short and somewhat singed-looking hair to make her look somewhat androgynous. She wears whatever is comfortable, and holds a special fondness for an old brown men's coat that has been worn to softness. It's not that she dresses like a slob; dressing "like" anything would require some awareness or concern for what she looks like. Iris simply doesn't care about the surfaces of things. To say she is straightforward would be an understatement. Her perpetual desire to get to the heart of the matter — every matter — borders on ferocity. She isn't unfriendly; she just cares about things more than most people are altogether comfortable with. The intensity of her personality often scares people away, but you will never meet a more gifted alchemist. Iris is not blessed with an easy genius, or some innate spark of talent. She is good because she worked her whole life to get to where she is, because she knows her own brain, and because she never gives up. She is as bold and sharp as a crouching tiger, and she has nearly as much patience for people playing games with her.

SPOILER: Click to show

25 years old, according to Iris. Of course, most of his description is according to Iris. It's the parts that aren't according to Iris that are of particular interest. His appearance, for example. Iris described him as tall and handsome, sure, but she never pictured him blond. Or green-eyed. Or with quite such a terrifying grin. Xander recalls his own history perfectly — from the childhood he spent on the rain-streaked streets of London, to his education at the entirely fictitious Grand Liverpool Academy of Alchemy, to his years of training under the renowned (nonexistent) swashbuckler Colonel Periwinkle. He is as charming and intelligent and exuberant as Iris imagined him to be. But the gaps Iris left — the voids scattered throughout the life of her hollow archetype — have, perplexingly, been filled in. Xander knows more about himself than Iris does. His favourite foods. The names of his former classmates. How he felt when he opened his (her) shop. Iris never thought about these things, and she wonders where they came from. Is it just the work of a bewildered human brain, automatically filling in the gaps in its knowledge with a plausible history just so that it can function properly? Or could it be that his personality is coming from somewhere else... perhaps the flesh memory of a young man who suffered a tragic fate? One thing is for certain: a character like Xander Sluggo was never meant to exist in the real world. Iris doesn't know when this realization will catch up with him, but she has a feeling that when it does, it won't end in anything pleasant — for him or the world he's been brought into.

SPOILER: Click to show

21 years old. Shadow, or Shad, is a kid in more ways than one. He's been a technical adult for long enough that he ought to have settled into the role a little, but he still looks about fourteen and has the enthusiasm of someone quite a bit younger than that. He has spiky black hair (usually mussed up by his goggles or some other manner of gadgetry) and wider eyes than is usual for someone of his (very mixed) Asian ancestry, making him look permanently like he just walked into a wall. In fairness, he walks into walls fairly often. This probably explains a lot. Shadow is an aimless liberal arts student by day and an amateur paranormal investigator by night, and Iris often calls on his expertise when hysterical patrons come to her pleading for help with their supernatural dealings. Shad's not blessed with an overabundance of sense, but he's quick and tech-savvy and easily one of the most compassionate people you'll ever meet — and when you're dealing with ghosts, this is really all you need.

SPOILER: Click to show

10 years old. Iris's assistant and more-or-less adopted daughter. Emily minds the till in the herbal remedies shop when Iris is working in the back, which is often. This is not, strictly speaking, legal. But when the smiling suited men come by every month to make sure Iris is being a responsible guardian, Emily is quick to don her tutu, put ribbons in her curly dark hair and flash her most adorable I-love-my-mommy smile. She is a disturbingly good actress, and revels in the power she holds over normal people. She is an ordinary ten-year-old in the same way a kitten is powerful dark magic. All told, she's like a mini Iris, only with the innate spark of talent that eluded her mentor. Things come easily to Emily after only a few tries, and she loves nothing better than having a job to do, particularly if that job involves alchemy. She likes art and horses and the occasional explosion. You do not want to get on her bad side.

SPOILER: Click to show

57 years old. One of two operating alchemists in Montréál, and clearly Iris's main competitor. Bartlett embodies the image of the traditional alchemist: older, bearded, scholarly, respectable. He is experienced and extremely talented, but he fears losing his clientele to the growing popularity of Iris's "new" flavour of alchemy. There's no reason they couldn't coexist peacefully for the rest of their careers, really. Their skills lie in suitably distinct areas — Iris is a fixer and Bartlett is a showman, to use trade lingo. It it's big and bold and as close to true magic as alchemy can get, you can bet that Bartlett knows how to do it and how to package it up for you at a bargain price. He could make his fortune just from performing, if he wanted to. But instead, he is blinded by what Iris has and he doesn't, making one-upping her his obsession. He's not a particularly bad man, but his moral system is a little shaky.

And I drew a Shadow (stop drawing and start planning, Tamia), but I still have to scan him. Suffice it to say that he is goofy and happy and has goggles. I regret nothing.

[Tam]

Finished a page and a half-ish. xD Just 390 words in all that, but they took me an hour and a half to write. Can't just scrawl when you're writing scripts, apparently. They take quite a bit of care and organization as you go, thanks to the odd formatting and such.

I'd like to have finished the teaser tonight, but I'm kind of sick and really tired and I need to go to bed. xD; *collapses*

(I'll go check out everyone else's threads tomorrow. Sorry. Right now I don't think I have the necessary mental facilities to form proper sentences.)

Edit: Kola champagne! Kola champagne is delicious.

[Tam]

Update your word count: 1

xD; Using the wordcounter to count pages instead of words this month. I mean. I doubt my script will be 50 000 words anyway, unless I plan to write several hundred pages. But that means that the site won't technically register my win at the end of the month, even if I do make it to the 100 page goal (I'm already behind, though, so I'd better get cracking).

Soyes. When we get halfway through the month and my wordcount is 50, don't think I'm too pathetic.

[Rikku]

Jul 2, 2011 1:00:27 GMT -5 Tam said:

Update your word count: 1

xD; Using the wordcounter to count pages instead of words this month. I mean. I doubt my script will be 50 000 words anyway, unless I plan to write several hundred pages. But that means that the site won't technically register my win at the end of the month, even if I do make it to the 100 page goal (I'm already behind, though, so I'd better get cracking).

Soyes. When we get halfway through the month and my wordcount is 50, don't think I'm too pathetic.

=D Cunning! And I think it's neat, even if the site doesn't quite support it. It's, like, everyone's gathered around the fire to tell scary stories, and you're the one that sings a ballad. That person.

... I should totally write a ballad.

Also, just the thought of trying to write fifty thousand words of script makes my head hurt. xD ... Imagine writing fifty thousand pages, ye - actually that'd probably be shorter! Huh. Scripts are weird.