Dusk Shine - Jay's '11 NaNo

[Jayeee]

The world of Lagunia faces peril.

Many were the days in which cities prospered under the ruling of Gods, made sentient from the natural elements. Kingdoms were built and rulers appointed, each one praying for their benevolent leaders to grant them a peaceful reign. As such, the weather, the ground and the the seas remained in their favour. That was until, spreading a contagion over the leading empire as a distraction, the God of darkness destroyed the dusk. For the Gods of Lagunia, dusk was a transitional time during which their raw, destructive energy was reduced; a daily temporal process that restricted them of their full potential. Without it, and with power unrestrained, Lagunia was at their mercy.

Years had passed since the destruction of dusk and the banishment of the God of darkness to faraway lands unknown. Without the darkness to blind their jealousy and rage, the Gods had laid waste to the Kingdoms around them. Only one City remains, fighting a bitter War against foes they couldn’t hope to possibly overcome.

Enter Tre, archer for the Royal Guard of the Kingdom of Legunis. He fights bitterly at the front line, dealing with every earthquake, mudslide and beast that the Gods take a fancy to. Despite his ever cheerful demeanour, Tre cannot shake the feeling that the King he serves so faithfully is planning something suspicious. The lack of decisive action from this leader of Legunis, forces Tre into his own drastic plot to discover his King’s real intentions. Pushed to hire an unsavoury, happy-go-lucky thief named Milo to break into the castle and learn what’s afoot, Tre finds himself in the thick of betrayal, darkened schemes, and a quest to recover the lost time of the dusk.

...

And that's the basic teaser/plot-line of my novel for this year! ^___^ I started off the planning process for this with only two words in my mind: 'War' and 'Gods'. So naturally, a War against the Gods was the first thing that developed in my mind. And then i've always loved the time of twilight/dusk. It's so pretty, and I thought it might be nice to have that play a pivotal part in my story. And that's pretty much how everything came together. XD

Got to say, I haven't developed Tre or Milo too much yet, but i'm already kind of in love with them!
Tre is an awkward, blonde-headed, lone-ranger kind of guy. He's cheerful even against the worst odds, but being around people generally makes him pretty uncomfortable.
Milo, is my touchy-feely, no-personal-space, fun loving thief who takes advantage of the War, and does nothing for anybody without expecting a generous monetary donation. He's pretty much the opposite to Tre even down to his long black hair.
...I love them! XDD Seriously, if I could draw, you'd be seeing the very first thing that came into my head when I thought these two guys up; Milo with his arm lazily resting around Tre's shoulder, stretching his hand out in front of them and spouting some dream about living rich for the rest of his life, while Tre looks awkwardly to the left. XD

So they're my main two. I think i'll probably be adding a female character into the mix, and although I don't think she'll be quite as important as Tre or Milo, she'll be around quite a lot. Tre and Milo will be journeying by boat quite often, so i'm thinking she will be their captain.
And then there's the Gods. I'll need to name them eventually. Especially the God of darkness. He's probably the most important of them all, but I haven't thought of a name for him yet. I'll have to do some research on that, I think.
Then in the background, there's sure to be a whole bunch of creatures around; pretty much anything that can survive the torment of the Gods, or at the very least hide from them. Nymphs and Magicians will definitely make appearances!

Ohman! I'm so excited!! =D

[Nova]

Jaaaaaaaaaaaay I'm excited for this!

[Zylaa]

=D I can picture your characters so vividly! And the whole concept of men fighting a hopeless battle against the gods is such a cool premise. <3

[Rikku]

Ooh, gods. Gods making huge amounts of trouble for people, even. <3 Good. Also, Tre and Milo sound awesome. xD They sound awesome already. And I can picture that rather clearly. And it's awesome. And dusk being a central thing is awesome, too, it being such a lovely edge-time. And just. This seems lovely in general.

[Chao]

I love the idea of dusk being stolen and dusk being pivotal to rein in the powers of the Gods. It sounds absolutely fantastic!
And I like the idea of the female character being the captain of a boat. Reduces the forced love schemes and allows her to remain tough enough to like her without her stealing the spotlight.

[Kathleen]

This sounds so cool! <3 I love the description of the world, the gods and the dusk - and Lagunia; the name rolls off the tongue really well. Tre and Milo sound absolutely awesome (especially Milo <3 /overly-fond of these type of characters). I have a crazy mental picture of them how you described it. xD

[Brooke]

Jay I'm in love with your characters all ready~<3
It sounds brilliant!

[Jayeee]

<33333 You guuuuys! <33333
I have to keep coming back to this thread and reading it over whenever I freak out about not being able to finish NaNo this year! XD
But thank you so much for the comments, everyone! =D You have no idea how helpful they will be to me, whenever I hit those week 2 blues! XD;
And i'm so glad that people seem to be able to picture my characters, because they were really vivid for me too!

Thank you everyone! <3

---

Okay, so I haven't posted in this in a long time. Real life has eaten away every spare moment i've had lately, which hasn't left much room for NaNo planning. Although, I think it might be a good idea for me to wait until the night before NaNo starts, and then have an idea spree. That's what a did last year. I wrote pages in my notebook in the hours leading up to NaNo, and that allowed me to be super excited for it, and I also knew exactly what to write and where to go as soon as midnight hit.

I have a pretty good idea of how the story is going to go. But right in the middle, it's "They leave Lagunis, and have adventures while looking for dusk", and I really need to think of what these 'adventures' will be! XDDDD
I have quite a few places in mind already that they can explore, I just need a reason for them to do so.

But anyway, this post isn't just an excuse for me to ramble about stuff. I do have an update to the story.

I've decided to name the female boat captain of my story Sada. I'm not entirely sure that it fits just yet, but it's the only thing I could think of that sounded half-decent for what I had in mind with her.
Sada is somewhat older than Tre and Milo. She has a no-nonsense attitude about life, which is only rivalled by her obstinacy and stubbornness. Because of this, she steers one of the only ships left in port, due to the uncertain weather conditions made by the gods. She enlists Tre and Milo as the only crew members of her ship, and has a tendency to treat the two like naughty children, although not without reason!

She sounds a little like a motherly figure, but i'm going to try and keep away from that in the story. Tre and Milo will probably argue quite a lot XD and i'm thinking she'll just laugh and watch from a distance. And i'm kind of picturing her as a red head.
In the picture I imagined of Tre and Milo that I posted about above, she'd most likely be face palming some distance behind them. XD

[Jayeee]

Have an excerpt! =D

SPOILER: Click to show

“I missed my opening,” Tre called angrily, and taking a step away from the boy, he lifted his bow, took a quick, but steady aim, and shot his arrow among the others.

The young boy ran forward and placed a hand above his eyes to shield them from the glare of the sun. “Cool,” he breathed, and watched the arrows hit their mark. Most of them ricocheted off the dragon’s scales, but Tre was delighted to see that at least three of them pierced through.

The swordsmen surrounding it, however, seemed to be having far less luck, and shifting its attention away from the resilient front line soldiers, the creature turned its fiery gaze to the archers in the distance.

Without a moments delay, the dragon breathed out a scorching breath of fire, which seemed to possess a life of its own as it coiled along the grass, charring everything. More like a snake make entirely of fire, the flames rushed out, directing itself through every archer it could find.

“Move, kid, move,” Tre yelled, grabbing the boys chain armour and shoving as hard as he could, as he too dived away from the dragon fire.

Before he even had time to stand up again, Tre was blinded by the instantaneous and jarring transition to night-time. His eyes saw nothing but pitch darkness around him, and he fumbled in his trouser pocket to find the light he’d been carrying with him.

The torch came to life with a slight flicker of its ethereal glow; the bright green liquid within the plastic tube came to full essence and illuminated the darkness around them.

Tre could hear the crunching of deadened grass about him, as the newly burnt foliage shrivelled away. He looked around into the darkness and saw the similar glow of other torches light up around the battlefield, and gradually the distant city appeared with the same bright incandescence.

“That was a close one.” He heard the voice of the young boy next to him, and moved the torch to see his beaming face. “Thanks for the save, you’re a real pal.” He punched Tre’s shoulder playfully and brandished his own shoulder for the soldier to return the fun.

Tre stared at the shoulder for a few seconds, unaware of what the correct social protocol for such an action was and deciding that the proverb: ‘do unto others as you’d have them do unto you’ highly appropriate, his punched the boy’s shoulder with his fist.

The young soldier fell to the ground with a thud, his chainmail clinking together on the ground. Tre watched him clutch his shoulder tentatively and then slowly stand himself upright again. “Wow,” he said with a reluctant and forced laugh, “That’s some arm you got there.”

I can't wait until Tre finally meets Milo; that's when the story is really going to begin. Writing with just Tre as my constant character is pretty hard, as he often hasn't had anybody to interact with. But so far, so good! =D

I started off with a prologue, which was somewhat of an infodump, but i'd like to think it worked out okay. It was kind of just an old man telling a story to some children, but heavily interspersed by Tre and his thoughts, so I hope that made it more readable that just a history lesson. XD

And then dragons! =D I didn't pre-plan dragons to make an appearance, but for the god of fire, they just seemed to fit. YaY for spontaneous NaNo ideas!

Things are going well so far! YaY!

[Jayeee]

Okay, so I wasn't planning on posting another excerpt so soon after the last one, but I couldn't resist! XD

I've been excited about writing the scene where Tre and Milo meet for the first time pretty much since I thought up the characters. Usually, when i'm looking forward to writing a scene, my writing never lives up to the expectations I have for it, and I always get disappointed. But this time, without sounding too arrogant, I really love the scene! XD I'm just really happy with how it turned out. I'd like to think that I wrote Milo exactly how I pictured him in my mind.

SPOILER: Click to show

“It’s not every day we see a soldier around these parts. You’re quite a sight, I must say; what with that bow and quiver you’ve got there.” He snickered to himself, before continuing. “But I hear you’ve got a little problem that I can help you with.”

“How did you know that?” he asked timidly.

“Come now, lad, introductions before business.” Milo moved his arm off of Tre’s shoulder, only to drape it loosely across his back. Tre continued to squirm under the intense invasion of his personal space. The stranger remained blissfully oblivious. “Now picture this; a young kid down on his luck, stuck in the streets of Lagunis. What is he to do without a roof over his head to protect himself from the raging battles against the gods?” He paused for a moment and shook his head mournfully.

“I don’t understand what-“

“That was my childhood, lad,” the man continued, ignoring Tre’s interruption. “It’s quite the tale, but I won’t bore you with details.” He outstretched his free arm in front of them both and swept it through the air dramatically. “This city is my playground. Not quite the palace I’d imagined, but it’ll do for now. Beside, anybody who’s worth knowing in this godforsaken place knows that Milo Filence is the only thief you can depend on.” Tre made a desperate attempt to unlatch himself from Milo’s arm, but the thief simply responded by holding onto him harder.

“You’re a thief?” he stammered.

“Course, I am. Didn’t I just tell you my heart wrenching backstory? It’s any wonder you’re not sobbing uncontrollably on the floor this very minute.” He gave a lopsided smile, which Tre caught from the corner of his eye. “I wouldn’t though; the ground’s pretty dirty these days.”

Milo removed his hand from around the poor soldier’s neck, and shuffled his feet so that he was standing in front of him. Tre’s relief was soon replaced by horror as he saw that Milo had taken the bow from hanging on his arm and was twanging the string. “Pretty nice stuff they got over there in the army.” He grinned haphazardly. “This’d get me food for weeks at the market.”

Tre grabbed childishly at the bow, and clasping his hands around the wood, he hastily replaced it over his arm.

Milo raised his hands defensively, keeping the haphazard grin plastered on his face. “Just kidding, lad. It’s all in good fun with Milo Filence. Not a single person in Lagunis would say I’m not the most upstanding person in the whole of the city. Well, except for the ladies, that is.” He winked at Tre and nudged him playfully in the ribs.

YaY for fun writing. I'm making the most of it, because I know that when week 2 hits, i'll be wondering why I ever decided to try NaNo this year! XDDD

[Jayeee]

I'm enjoying posting excerpts, so have another! XD

SPOILER: Click to show

Milo shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “I wish I could tell you what you need to know, lad. I’d hate for this journey to be a waste for you. Tell you what-” He paused to swivel round on one foot and draped a hand back over Tre’s shoulders. “I’ll make you a little deal. Since you seem like such a nice guy – real upstanding and all that – I’ll help you get the information you’re after. At a price, naturally.”

“How will you do that?” Tre asked. Although he hated to admit it, the thief was very persuasive.

“Simple really. You and I – the unstoppable duo – sneak into the castle and talk to that friend of yours. If he’s really a clever as you make him sound, he’ll know what’s up, and we can all go away happy.”

Tre flung the thief’s arm off of his shoulders. “Y-y-you want me to break into the royal castle?” he exclaimed with fright. He’d known that seeking the help of a thief was a bad idea; this had just confirmed it.

“Well when you put it like that, of course it sounds unsavoury.” He plastered a grin back over his face. “I prefer to think of it as borrowing an entrance.”

“I could never do such a detestable thing.”

Milo shook his head. “Well, if you really think you’ll be okay going day after day fighting against enemies you can’t possibly hope to defeat while the King sits around and arrests your dearest companions. That’s you choice, my friend.” He sighed dramatically.

Tre stood silent for a moment. Part of him was disgusted that he was even considering Milo’s offer – but if his intuition was right, then something was terribly wrong. “I couldn’t possibly…”

“Oh, but you could. I won’t steal anything – promise. You’ll just talk to your lovely friend and we’ll be on our way. Nothing that’s really illegal at all. Thief’s honour.”

“How would we even get in?” Tre asked dubiously. “There are guards everywhere.”

Milo laughed. “You underestimate my skills, friend. You think somebody as underhanded as the King doesn’t have a few secret entrances or two? Just in case he needed to make a quick escape.”

Tre had a million more questions to ask his new companion, but before he could utter another one, Milo has placed his arm back around the soldier’s shoulders.

“First, let’s talk about my payment.”

Milo is ridiculously fun to write! =D
I'm finally getting into the big plot of the story now. And i'm going to have to start juggling assignment deadlines with NaNo writing. We'll see how that works out. XDD