well there goes that.

[Deleted]

wow that was already started off so great way to be inconspicuous rv everybody say yeeeeeeah

Okay. I have a confession to make: this is not a NaNo.

Have you ever had an awesome idea for a story, but are unable to tell a story? Like, I could write this all out, word by word, chapter by chapter, sure, but that would not be the best way to tell this story. I can feel it in my bones. I want this to be a mixture of things. Sort of like a graphic novel but not at the same time. But alas I cannot draw. Perhaps I should spend the next five years teaching myself how to sketch faces and limbs and then we'll see? I just want to be able to tell this story the way it is in my head, the way it feels right. A mess of words and color and things colliding like some fantastic dream.

This isn't a NaNo, not in the traditional way, no. This is no novel. But it is a story.

See, I've had this idea for a while now, growing in the catacombs of my mind like a cancerous plotbunny. And I want to do something with it. Explore the ideas, expand them, instead of just putting it on the shelf of "really cool things that I will probably never create".

So, I am going to latch on to the creative spirit of NaNo and try my best to write 50k worth of content, be it scripts, descriptions, backstory, witty banter, prose, poetry, anything - it all fits together, see? It all has it's place.

(This is the kind of story where you'll have scenes that turn out to be dreams and aimless conversations and magical fights and transcriptions of conversations recorded on a mixtape stashed in the carcass of a rusting orange Chevy and shaky cellphone videos of armageddon and graffiti and entire chapters dedicated to Polaroids with poetic captions.)

It's... ambitious. And slightly pretentious, too, probably. But I love this idea. I love the worlds and the characters and the story and everything and I just want to share a little piece of it out in to the world, see if it floats, sinks, catches fire, whatever it may be.

_ s c a p e .

SPOILER: Click to show

Dream is an impossible world. Everything exists at once. A surrealistic landscape where bending reality (called 'shifting') is the norm. Its inhabitants live as wanderers, exploring every corner of both Dream and their own creativity. There is no law, no politics, no real society to the world of Dream. There is no need to eat or rest or sleep. People live as they please: the only task in life is to experience it.

A paradise, or so it seems, but only if you don't realize that living forever means living forever. The mind was only to built to last long and hold so much. You can only live out your fantasies for so long before you grow tired of them. This is a place where dreams and memories collide so frequently some have trouble become unable to tell the difference between the two. When someone goes 'lucid' (lose control of their reality) they become dangerous.

That's where [insert awesome term here, I'll just call them Reavers for now] come in.

Reavers are not an authority figure. They are more like emissaries or even mercenaries. They do not control or intimidate. They simply carry out tasks no one else is capable of doing. Reavers tend to be people who some sort of 'nix' effect on shifting. They cannot bend reality as easily as most, but the changes do not effect them as much as they do others. As a result, they are the only ones who can properly deal with the danger of someone gone lucid. While Reavers try their best to simply calm lucid dreamers, sometimes the situation is too dire and they must put an end to the dreamer.

In other words, kill them.

(It is not so easy. This is a world with no limits, after all.)

People do not die in Dream. They can suffer and feel pain, but blood can flow back into veins and bones can reconnect like magnets. There is no "end", per se. At least, no end without the aid of somebody else.

Reavers are accompanied by [insert more awesome lingo here, I'll just refer to them as Ailes, which is what they would probably be called if the phrase 'my Aile' wasn't so awkward.]

Ailes are pretty much the polar opposite of Reavers. Their ability so shift is much more potent than the average dreamer. They're also able to bypass the nixing effect of Revears. (When an Aile goes lucid, it is extremely dangerous, although this rarely happens as Ailes have a consistently firm grasp on reality.)

While a Reaver is the only one that can contain a lucid dreamer, Ailes are who finish the job. They send them off. Imagine them away. They are the only ones capable of doing this. (Where the dreamers go after that, no one knows. No one really wants to find out. There are few philosophers in Dream. Ideas mean very little when anything is possible.)

Dream is a world mainly composed of travellers. There are those who travel in groups and those who travel alone.There are many who choose to live with their reality and forgo the shifts of others; these people spend their days on the far-away corners of Dream, seeking solace only in their creations. And then there are many who prefer to stay in one place and live out their lives in the company of others as opposed to the company of shifts.

There is only one city in Dream.
(^{The city is a chaotic cocktail of architecture. A palace with soaring turrets and glass cathedral windows towers over a picturesque cottage with woodwork the shape and colour of lace. Victorian tudor houses are tucked in the shadows of skyscrapers. Bridges pass between roofs. Staircases spiral down against walls. Patios melt into sidewalks. Houses with tireswings under oak tree branches and dilapidated shacks and houseboats floating in small patches of ocean and little houses with gardens on the tops of tall buildings. -- description pulled from the thing that was supposed to be my NaNo, because it is basically the same city and I really want to put that city into a story and this fits. The City is one of the reasons I want art involved in some way. Sure, I could describe it all I want - but seeing it is another thing altogether and the only way to do it any justice is to map it out.)}

Reavers and Ailes are more nomadic than the average dreamer. While many people accept them warmly and are grateful for what they do, there is some controversy to the roles they play. After a while, they make people uneasy, and anxiety is not a commonplace emotion in Dream. So while they are perfectly welcome to stay, they must leave shortly after.

Because of this, the bond between a Reaver and their Aile becomes very strong and somewhat co-dependent. Reavers and Ailes also seek out others like them. They have this whole secret "sub-society" and trade secrets and know the world better than anyone else.

There are corners of Dream that most do not seek out. And there are things much more dangerous than a shift gone wrong…

No one is sure where Nightmares comes from. They are hideous, terrifying, uncontrollable things and surely they cannot come from dreamers - who would willingly create such a monstrosity?

They tend to exist on the fringes of Dream. The more stable the environment (the City is extremely stable. People in the City are not as prone to shift as travellers) the less Nightmares there are. There is usually an abundance of Nightmares near the places the hermits live.

Nightmares are correlated with lucidity, although no one is really sure how or why. When a Nightmare pops up, there is a chance that many may go lucid afterwards, which is why it is such a disaster when a Nightmare does pop up in the City. Likewise, after someone goes lucid, Nightmares may arise shortly after.

Ailes are tasked with getting rid of Nightmares, as it takes a tremendous amount of concentration, willpower, and shifting-prowess to end a Nightmare. Even for Ailes, it is a taxing experience. It is not unheard of for Ailes to falter when trying to take down a Nightmare, so Ailes often come together in groups whenever the report of a Nightmare arises.

There are many types of Nightmares. They can be beasts or they can be places or they can be situations that repeat themselves over and over and over. There are some Nightmares, however, that can't even be considered Nightmares, they are so unlike anything else...

Some have started calling them Ghosts.

Ghosts are like shifts with no visible maker. No one is sure where they come from, no one is sure who or what controls them. Ghosts have been described as a "flicker of unrelated things coinciding". They are highly unpredictable and their existence is ephemeral. They come, they confuse, then they disappear. Unlike Nightmares, Ghosts can arise anywhere, stable reality or not. However, the closer they are to the fringes, the apparitions appear more frequently and last longer. Also unlike Nightmares, they seem to have some sort of sentience to them, which is odd for something that appears to be nothing more than a shift without a source. Some have tried to speak with Ghosts, but their answers carried no coherence and just made the entire situation even more mysterious.

And then there is this place called Wake.

Not many dreamers know of Wake, and those who do tend to dismiss it as a story, as a the remains of something lucid. But Wake is very much real and very much a mystery. Wake exists on the edge of Dream. It is a dark and shadowy place that stretches out like an ocean and seems to have no end. It is eerie and silent and terrifying and most who see it leave immediately and dare not speak of it. But there are some who have dared venture into its midst…

"In all the history of Dream, there has been Wake, and no one has returned to tell us what it is."

[Deleted]

_{BUT WAIT!}

[/size]

SPOILER: Click to show

Dream is actually exactly that. A dream.

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN EXTREMELY DRAMATIC REVELATION IN-STORY. EVERYBODY PRETEND YOU ARE SHOCKED! SO VERY SHOCKED! OH MY YOU DID NOT SEE THIS COMING AT ALL!!!

Spoilers! Spoilers everywhere! Because I am still developing ideas and this thread is my spiderweb in which I trap tangents like flies.

Anyway.

The outside world is completely unaware of Dream's existence. The outside world is too busy dealing with its own problems.

The outside world is the real world, is our world, although we wouldn't recognize it if we set foot in it.

The outside world is currently undergoing the apocalypse.

No one's sure how it started - those still alive are too busy trying to survive it.

Um. Zombies and stuff! Weird things are happening! Except it's kind of died down which is the only positive thing about anything really at this point. The cities have all been emptied and the stragglers band together.

No one has any idea what is going on and to emphasize the fact that no one has any idea what is going on the scenes from the outside are told in snippets - photographs and audio transcriptions and interviews and attempts to chronicle just how everything went wrong, except all these stories are told by people who have no clue whatsoever. It's all mishmash, a mosaic, a jigsaw with several pieces missing.

This is mostly because I have NO IDEA what the disaster will be. There just needs to be a disaster. And zombies. And ruined cities.

… honestly, it's more of a post-post-apocalypse by this point. There are still zombies, but not many, and people are starting to rebuild their wasted world.

And just to make things more confusing and vague and frustrating, everything involving the Outside world will be told through photographs and diaries and audio recordings and letters and security camera recordings and scientific logs and calendars and poetry written on the walls of Motel 6's.

And just to make things even MORE confusing and vague and frustrating, the majority of those transcripts will be told from the viewpoint of TEENAGERS!

Excited yet?

_ s c a p e .

SPOILER: Click to show

I have too many names that start with 'S' and usually I try to avoid things like that (when too many names start or end with the same letter it irks me) but all the 'S' names fit the characters perfectly I don't want to change them hahaha..

Anyway.

DREAMERS

(secret: there is no real age in Dream. people choose how old they look, even though they are not aware. people in Dream are not born and no one is sure how they are created or if they are even real at all.

secret secret: this is going with the theory that everyone we see in our dreams are just strangers we have forgotten. all dreamers existed somewhere, once, in the real world, and maybe still do. but they are no what happens when you leave memory untouched to grow. they have shifted from hazy faces and vague impressions to become their own idiosyncratic beings.)

Dean Dunst, "Dusty"
(appears around late-twenties, early-thirties. olive-coloured skin. hazel eyes. black hair, always fashionably unkempt. perpetual stubble. might wear trench coats. and scarves. i have no idea.)

A veteran Reaver. (Psst - it doesn't take that long to feel like one.)

Dean is everything you'd except someone with such a task to be: quiet, reserved, distant, mysterious, at times a little jaded. He is a hard person to read and most don't even bother trying.

He's kind of going through some sort of existentional crisis. He's seeing himself as if from a distance. He feels disconnected from most of the world. He both revers his duty and hates it. (Being a Reaver, he's never had a real strong control on shifting reality, and he feels now as if reality is shifting him.) But the thrill of the chase - of taking down lucid dreamers and fighting Nightmares - excites him, rejuvenates him. The feeling is short-lived, though, and never enough. He begins to crave it and becomes Dream's equivalent of an adrenaline junkie.

There's a poetic side to Dean, however. He's more introspective than most people in Dream. He tries to understand Nightmares and lucid dreamers while most Reavers just focus on destroying them. He refuses to fight Ghosts and tells everyone that they aren't Nightmares, they are something different. He chases down rumours of ghosts and is trying to piece together what they are from the snippets of words he's managed to catch. He's heard the stories of Wake and has this burning desire to visit it and see it for himself, but he dares not go because he is certain that if he does he will be one of the few to walk into the dark and never return.

He identifies a little too much with being a Reaver. He is a hunter. He is a warrior. He must act like one. Calm and cool and collected. No visible cracks in the armour. Always running a maximum-potential. He's become so job-orientated, so focused on his task that he is beginning to forget the person he was before.

He knows that being a Reaver makes people uncomfortable so he avoids the City as much as possible. He doesn't like crows or noise or tight spaces. Conversations with Dean are rather one-sided, he tends to listen and nod and offers only laconic responses. Sometimes not even that. It's only when he's with someone he knows well that he speaks more than one word sentences. And it's very hard to get to know him. (After his first partner retired, it took him a long time to find a suitable replacement Aile.)

Dean is also really bad when it comes to emotions. Surprise, surprise! He blames his distance on this and on his inability to connect with other people. He fears he has become numb. However, this is only on a surface level. He still feels and acts with emotion, it's just so subtle even he doesn't realize it. He speaks with action and body language and not with words or facial expressions, and only those who know him well can tell anything at all. (And those who know him well are few and far between.) He thinks of himself as a cynic, although he isn't really one. He's just blunt and prone to distrust and extremely melancholic.

"Dusty" is what people who don't really know him call him. (It's a nickname he earned from his earlier days as a Reaver, when he was reckless (he is still reckless) and young and so much more alive.) It used to bug him but now he doesn't care because it means he can go by Dean and in some instances people'll have no idea who that is and he likes it when people see him as a stranger instead of a Reaver.

… I really need to flesh out his character more since he is basically the decoy-protagonist of this entire ensemble piece. Bluhh and stuff.

Sofie Templeton
(around fifteen-sixteen or so. petite. curly brown hair, looks slightly orangeish in the light. bright blue eyes. freckles everywhere.)

Sofie is Dean's latest partner. She has been an Aile for a while but still acts like it is her first day because everything is just so exciting !!!

She is propelled by her sense of wonder. She is almost constantly shifting - when walking she'll make flowers grow at their feet and then pick them up and turn them into butterflies and watch the butterflies grow into birds. She never grows tired or weary or bored of the world and is very much fascinated by everything - not only her creations, but the shifts of others too.

Sofie is friendly and peppy and easily excited and just a little bit silly. She is kind of shy at first but after a while she will talk your head off providing you listen. She likes boys and likes talking about how she likes boys, much to Dean's chagrin. (Dean can't stand the boy-talk. Think scary-over-protective-father-with-the-rifle.)

She wears her heart on her sleeve and it starting to get hurt because of it. She is naive and she's slowly learning that she shouldn't be and she does not know how to deal with this because she wants to trust people and believe in them and see the good in all.

The longer she plays the role of the Aile, the more she sees the ugly side of the world, something that she would not have noticed in as much detail if she had been an ordinary dreamer. There's a selfish, childish aspect of her that makes her cling to her naivety even though it steers her wrong because she thinks growing up means becoming jaded and losing her wonder and she does not want to let that go. (Being an Aile is how she defines herself. Like Dean, she latches on to that part of her identity, although in this case it is because she thinks that is what she must become: gentle, caring, compassionate, constantly supportive, always smiling, the last thing someone would want to see before the go, the stranger they'd want to hold hands with when they disappear. For the most part, she is many of those things, but she is not sure whether she has those qualities because that's who she sincerely is, or if it's because it's who she wants to be.)

She cries every time she has to send someone away and quivers in the shadows of Nightmares. But she is persistent and determined and tries her very best to be brave. Sometimes she smiles even though she doesn't mean it because she just wants to be a good person who loves everyone and she doesn't want to darken anyone else's world with her problems. (She views them as petty and unimportant.)

…

Sofie is actually my favourite character, because she is someone who tries her very best to be good and kind even though it is difficult and she is not afraid to love and to admit that she loves and sometimes she cries and sometimes she is not strong and even though she is the type of character who is often shattered because of her status as the Ingenue she still persists in being happy and hopeful and kind and even though she grows older and wiser and more serious and more reserved she retains her sense of wonder and I love her and I just really hope she comes across as a character that is real and strong and relatable and not just some silly little wisp of a girl that no one will ever care about.

Anyway, a little bit about their relationship!!!

You'd think someone like Dean would grow extremely annoyed with Sofie very quickly, and actually yeah that is kind of exactly what happens. But it's an endearing kind of exasperation! He's happy to be travelling with someone like her because she grounds him, she brings him back to reality when he feels so far away. There is a realness to her, a sincerity, and for someone who is still swept up in capes and mask and mystery he can't help but be drawn into that like a moth to a flame. Sofie in turn looks up to Dean a lot. He is just like soooo awesome okay. She goes to him for advice and listens intently to every word he says and tells him everything. (Sometimes she won't cry in front of others, but she'll always cry in front of him. Not because she is seeking attention but she is comfortable enough in his presence to not hide anything.)

There is no underlying romantic subtext to any of this. No. Just no. It is purely father/daughter, mentor/pupil, cool-older-brother/adorable-little-sister, experienced-veteran/idealistic-youngster platonic.

*

"So why do they call you that?"
"Call me what?"
"Dusty. That's not your name."
"No. It isn't."
"So?"
"So?"
"Sooooooo I'm asking because I want to know! … unless you don't want to tell me. If not that's fine just tell me to shut up and I will."
"… no. You deserve to know."
"…"
"Rusty and Dusty. That's what they used to call us."
"Who? Oh, wait, her."
"Yeah."
"Why'd they call you that?"
"Because that's all we'd leave in our wake."

*

Siobhan Needsalastname, "Rusty"
(middle-ish twenties. ash blond hair. purple eyes. fine features, sharp shoulders. pale.)

A former Aile. Was Dean's partner until her retirement. She now lives on the fringes, almost like a hermit. Not because she is distracted by her own reality, but because she wants to understand all realities. She is studying shifting, lucidity and Nightmares. She is trying to understand what makes some Reavers, some Ailes, and some nothing but ordinary. Most of all, however, she is researching Ghosts…

She had quite the reputation as an Aile and that reputation has carried over and grown since her self-exile. (They're starting to call her a witch now.)

Travellers come to her, seeking answers. They do not trust her, but they believe she knows everything. And for the most part that is true. Siobhan is very wise and knowledgable, mostly because she strives to be wise and knowledgable.

Siobhan is derived from an older character of mine - a magician who created an elixir of life in order to have enough time to learn everything, but as the mind can only hold so much, she suffered, and then ended up trading her sanity, her memory, and essentially everything that made her human for the sake up keeping her knowledge.

Siobhan's case is not quite as dramatic, but there are some parallels. She is very mysterious and very hard to read and there's something about her that just does not feel human. She hardly ever emotes and does not show any compassion, empathy or sympathy for others.

She is very manipulative and is extremely sneaky about it. People don't even realize they're playing right into her palm.

In many ways, Siobhan could easily play the role of the villain, except she won't because she has no actual desire to. All she's interested in at the moment is her research.

… for now anyway. (There is more to her than this. But haha it is a secret for now!)

…

Dean visits her often under the pretence of gathering information about Ghosts. He'd rather get his rumours from her than from the City. Sofie is somewhat afraid of Siobhan and does not trust her, but keeps mum about it for several reasons. (When Dean was searching for a new Aile, he was met with constant failure until Siobhan suggested he meet Sofie. She's grateful to Siobhan for that, although she has no idea why Siobhan recommended her. But that doesn't mean she'll trust the witch just yet.)

(Dean is hopelessly in love with Siobhan and the sentiment is hopelessly unrequited. Siobhan just isn't capable of forming close bonds with people. She admits, however, that if she had met him earlier, before everything that happened happened, (whatever that is), she might have loved him in return. ("I had a heart, once. I traded it for knowledge.") He would do anything for her, she is well aware of this, and while you'd think she'd jump at the chance to have a pawn so easily manipulated, she doesn't, and warns him often that he should not visit her so frequently, as he more than anyone else is well aware of how dangerous she can be. In her strange, twisted, unfeeling way, she does care for him. (They've had a long partnership, after all, and understand each other sometimes even more than they understand themselves.)

Their relationship is very dysfunctional and convoluted and toxic and they know this yet refuse to let go. It is all very messed up but I love the dynamic (even though it is awful). There's not really a HUGE FOCUS on this, though. There will be no plot arc, no romantic drama, and certainly no resolution: it is just something that's there in the background noise of the story. They have both influenced each other so much that it has left lasting, damaging effects on their respective personalities. It's a subtle, secret thing, something that's there for those who want to dig, but glossed over in a way that those who simply do not care for romance don't have it shoved in their face. …or at least that's how I'm hoping it'll be perceived. I am trying my best not to have a ROMANTIC PLOT TUMOR take over this. So far, there is only one explicitly romantic relationship, and this is not it.)

*

Russel Needsalastname, "Ruse"
(late teens. scruffy blond hair. dark brown eyes. a few light freckles across the bridge of his nose. gangly limbs)

A newbie. He's still getting used to the job.

The job kind of scares him, actually. I mean wow all this responsibility all of a sudden. It is so serious! He is not quite sure if he is ready for this level of seriousness!

All and all, Ruse is a nice guy. Kind of awkward. Mumbles and says "um" a lot. Has trouble looking people into his eyes when he speaks to them. Extremely gullible. Cannot tell a lie to save his life and for that matter cannot tell when people are lying to save his life either.

He has high moral values and tries to talk lucid dreamers back into reality instead of doing away with them. He even tries to avoid taking down Nightmares. He's too empathetic for his own good sometimes, trying to understand things that cannot be understand. This is beginning to take its toll, and he is turning into something of a sour Knight, a bitter idealist who no longer quite believes in what it is he is doing, but continues to do so because it is what is right it has to be right if not why would he be striving towards this for so long.

… I'm thinking of making him gay but um I have no idea because I don't want to accidentally write things that are offensive and have no idea that what I am writing is offensive because I am so ignorant like that ;____; but I still really want him to like boys and um

…

(Sofie totally has a minor crush on him. If I do decide to make him come out of the closet it will be in the middle of a conversation between the two and Sofie will jokingly be asking if he has a girlfriend and he will blush and stare at his feet and go "um no i…. like…… boys." and he will whisper the last part almost like he doesn't want her to hear it and it will take a second for it to sink in but then Sofie'll just go "Oh. Well I like boys too. " and try to make the situation as not awkward as possible. and then i have this whole tangent scene planned where she will go home to Dean and cry because hey she had a crush on him and he doesn't like her back and being a teenager is hard and it's not like I hate him or he hurt me or anything it's good that he told me this and I'm glad he told me this and i still really like him i just can't like him it's just that i can't like him in the way i did and it hurts why does it hurt and Dean will like awkwardly pat her head or something trying his best to be comforting but inside he will be freaking out like oh my god what am i supposed to do i cannot deal with this kind of thing and then the next day Sofie will spring up all chipper after a good cry and from then on whenever her and Ruse get together they will have sleepovers and he will braid her hair and they will talk about boys and it will be so great the end!!!)

(i hope it'll be great at least. does that sound great? or does that sound horrible like no rv what are you doing.)

Sitara Needsalastname
(early thirties or younger maybe no one knows. of indian orient. orange-brown eyes. brown hair, flecked with gold, usually tied back in a single braid. wears saris in bright colours.)

Ruse's partner. She too is a veteran and is very good at what she does.

Kind, graceful and serene. She's a realist and is not afraid to tell things as they are, although she will cushion the blow. Sitara is very observant and usually the first one to figure things out. She is a little mysterious, all mirth-filled eyes and Mona Lisa smiles. Tends to give everyone pet names. Has a mischievous, somewhat sarcastic sense of humour, although everything she says is done with good taste and measure. Sitara is nothing if not careful.

An old friend of Dean's. One of his few friends. She understands him. (She understands everybody.) He seeks her when he needs advice or answers, often subconsciously, and she is always there to provide them.

She's played the mentor role many times. In fact, she's never had a permanent partner. She takes new, inexperienced dreamers and helps them grow into their roles then partners them off to someone who needs them.

A wanderer at heart, she cannot tie herself down to anything. Not even people. A very guarded person. She's one of those people you meet once and it feels like they've known you your entire life, but you will never really notice how little you actually know about her. She can read you like a book but you'll never even grace the cover of who she is. She has secrets, but she hides them so carefully no one even notices.

… I'm still trying to decided who is the Reaver and who is the Aile in this partnership. I don't want Ruse to be the Aile because I already have the older!Reaver and pupil!Aile thing going on with Dean and Sofie and I don't want this to parallel that this much. I like the idea of a kind, wise Aile looking over this kid who isn't quite sure if he's ready to face the responsibility and if I make Ruse the Reaver and Sitara the Aile then ALL THE IMPORTANT REAVER CHARACTERS ARE BOYS AND THE IMPORTANT AILE CHARACTERS ARE GIRLS and that's something I want to avoid. Um. I'll just have to come up with more characters I guess! ?___?

…


(Sitara is very much Dean's foil. She seems kind, warm, and soft compared to all Dean's cold, hard, aggressive edges. Seems. Dean believes himself to be numb to emotion, but he is very much guided by his heart. Sitara, on the other hand, is very calm and calculating, deep down inside. She is always guided with her mind, and rarely by what she feels. Sitara is a nomad, but people seek her out; Dean avoids cities because people avoid him.)

*

Vermillion and Viridian
(identical twins. silver hair. impossible to determine age, even in Dream. look about to be late teens, early twenties. short and small and skinny limbs that seem too long for their bodies, but eyes are old and heavy, bright yellow and almond-shaped. (the only way you can tell them apart is by their eyes: Vermillion's pupils are thin and narrow, cat-like, snake-like, while Viridian's are dilated, wide like an owl's) sometimes they wear their colours (red and green) so people can tell them apart, but they switch so much no one even knows anymore. often wear masks/elaborate costumes. cheshire smiles, shark teeth, chimpanzee grins. they are the really creepy ones.)

Vermillion is the Reaver while Viridian is the Aile.

They're always together. Speak in riddles. Talk in synch. Finish each other's sentences. Almost interchangeable, most can't even tell them apart. Considered quite eccentric, even by Reaver/Aile standards.

Random creepy comic-relief characters. Not very important, but are very fun.

May or may not turn lucid at some point in the plot?

We'll see. They're still kind of new and shiny.

Ezekiel
Aile, Lorelai's partner.

Lorelai
Reaver, Ezekiel's partner.

~ may or may not be husband and wife we'll see I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH THESE TWO I JUST LIKE THE SOUND OF THEIR NAMES THEY STILL AREN'T SOMETHING YET I JUST NEED A CHICK REAVER AND A DUDE AILE ~

Christopher
(a shapeshifter.)
"I was born in the wrong skin, so I taught myself how to change it."
bar-tender in the only tavern in the City that Dean will frequent more than once. Outrageous and outgoing Knows everybody's secrets. An excellent source of information.
~ blah will develop side characters more later ~

Brigid
(late teens, young twenties. bright red hair - but bottled, you can see dark roots creeping in. bright blue eyes, heavily outlined with makeup. always dressed in the same outfit - jeans, white tank top and a brown leather jacket.)

A mysterious dreamer who exists near the outskirts of Dream. Is often spotted wandering close to Wake. Very little is known about her.

She avoids people as a rule. When someone does manage to speak with her, her words are curt and guarded. Grows more snide the longer the conversation lasts. She does not seem to trust anybody. She is highly suspicious of everything.

~ must elaborate on personality because she becomes fairly important later on actually just see Broken Bird trope that is basically it hahahaha ~

Many suspect she is a Reaver, as no one has ever seen her shift. This is because she lacks the ability completely. You see, she was not born to dream. She came from the Outside. (More on this later.)

OUTSIDERS

mainly focuses on this fabulous duo of teenage zombie slayers. for some reason they are the best around at saving lives. nobody knows why, not even them. (probably because they completely disregard order and structure and just go out there and slay stuff instead of wasting time preparing.)

Candace Chrysanthemum Coons, answers to "Coons" and nothing else
(around sixteen or so. shoulder-length blonde hair, always tied back in messy ponytails. grey eyes with heavy shadows/what looks like mascara/eyeliner underneath, only adds to the whole "raccoon" theme she's got going. constantly glaring. is roughly five feet tall.)

Blunt, volatile, easily-angered. Language language language. Coons rejects euphemisms and ideas like "oh it will all get better". Painfully honest, she tells it like it is, and she ends up alienating several people because of it. Is fully aware of how much she doesn't like people, and how much people don't like her, and she keeps on wandering because of it. She's adapted well to post-apocalypse earth, something she finds both disturbing and darkly-amusing. Highly sarcastic. Some find her sense of humour to be in terribly poor taste, but it's just one of her many coping mechanisms. She lost everything she knew to the apocalypse and isn't sure how else to deal with it.

Coons keeps fighting not because she believes it will make a difference, but because she thinks it's better than the alternative. Does not want to be considered worthless, a waste, another thing eating to die, so she saves lives instead and thinks nothing of it. Doesn't believe she is a hero, despite many people telling her she is, because she believes there is no just moral reasoning behind her actions. She just does for the sake of doing.

Coons is impatient and hates to wait. You'd think that'd make her impulsive and reckless, but no, it just makes her highly aware of everything around her. She's a master strategists - you think she would've lasted this long if she just dove in head first? No. Of course not.

Prior to the apocalypse, she studied several forms of martial art, had weekly paintball/laser tag ventures, and spent many a night playing COD. Her fighting strategy and overall tactics are derived from this. Genre-savvy. She is slightly paranoid and highly suspicious of everything and everyone. The only one she trusts is Elliott, although she is unlikely to admit it. All fire, pins and needles, but fiercely loyal and protective to those whom she actually cares about.


Elliott Fletcher
(around sixteen or so. dark eyes. pale pale pale. tall and lean, an athlete's wiry build. always grinning. wavy black hair, slightly shaggy. wears the same grey beanie every day even though it is probably crawling with bacteria by now eww Elliott that's just gross.)

Wisecracker. Easy-going, always smiling. Freespirited. Travels with Coons because he wants to see the world, or whatever remains of it. (And oh sure saving a couple of lives along the way that's cool too I guess.) Can be extremely charming when he wants to be. Not as suave as he thinks he is, however. He is ~ eccentric ~ and says weird and obvious things sometimes and he is also a total dork and Coons does not know why she is traveling with him why is she traveling with him Elliott why are you here go away. Also collects postcards!

Elliott is pretty honest when it comes to what he thinks about things. He isn't blunt like Coons, he just wears his heart on his sleeve and knows how to protect it. He will tell someone straight to their face whether he likes them or doesn't like them. Likes to make up stories. (Most of them are really really bad. Except for a few, which are okay.) Kind of flighty, but thinks outside the box, which is really the only reason why Coons keeps him around. (So she says.)

He's the hopeful one, the idealist, the one that says things like "we'll make it through this I know we will" even though they both know that isn't true.He is easily-liked, but keeps on moving because he has this idea that the more people get to know him, the less they will like him. (True colours, you know. He isn't always this nice. He keeps his emotions bottled up and sometimes he explodes and while he'd never hurt anyone, not even then, he doesn't want people to think he is weak because there is so much weakness in the world right now the world needs someone strong and brave and heroic and heroes don't get angry or sad heroes are valiant.)

…

Elliott and Coons met while fighting zombies, parted ways, met again while fighting zombies, parted ways, and after a while they just ended up seeing each other so much that they ended up traveling together and thus was the start of a beautiful friendship.

(The end of the world is what brought them together and they are both totally aware of that fact but it's the only thing they won't bring up. They know that if there weren't zombies, they would've never met, and even if they had met, they would've never become friends. It's a subject they just don't want to touch because they have reached the point where can't even imagine being one without the other. Everything else is fair game, though. There are no secrets, no fallacies, no false hopes.)

They have grown extremely co-dependant. They can take one look at each other and know exactly what the other one is thinking. They have secret handshakes and a secret code and so many inside jokes and tell each other everything. They are also totally in love but won't admit it because they are teenagers and geeze feelings we have zombies to kill moron there are more important things to do than make doll-eyes at each other.

(Elliott is totally okay with coming out and admitting it but Coons is all bluh bluh tsundere about it because despite being a pro zombie slayer she still can't wrap her head around the idea of boys liking her. And also she is bad with feelings. Awkwardly bad. Laughably bad. Painfully bad. You know how I said there would be only one explicit romance in this? Well. This is it. And it is mostly just UST and awkward teenagers being awkward and it's really weird shipping your own characters but hey we'll see how it goes I guess.)

…

Elliott has a tape recorder and Coons likes to pretend she is in a video game sometimes so they record audio diaries of life on Earth and tend to dramatize everything. They leave these in old trucks, ones that can still play cassette tapes, and then spray paint the vehicles orange for whoever might be following them.

Noah
(brown skin, brown hair, brown eyes. dresses very fashionably even though it's the end of the world and all.)

Vague and vaguely hipster. Runs around a zombie-infested afterworld taking pictures of everything. Writes poetry on walls. Highly philosophical. Sees individual life as meaningless, ephemeral, and is determined to make some part of humanity last through her efforts.

~ need to elaborate more but she is kind of supposed to be very mysterious even in a cast filled with mysterious people so we'll see ~


*

Bastian
politician wannabe. Coons and him really don't get along. may or may not be a relative of Elliott's.

~ blah side characters blah blah blah ~

Laika
wandering doctor.

~ and several other people that are trying to rebuild society but they can't be all that important since i have yet to dream them up ~

[Kathleen]

This sounds amazing and really creative and you are way courageous to try this. ^_^ (or maybe 'courageous' isn't exactly the right word but you know, it's daring. or something. I'll stop now.)

The world sounds so beautiful, and I know your writing will make it amazing, whatever you do. =D Yes I am way excited yet and also I have that same problem with names where names that all start with the same letter or contain the same number of syllables or sound very very similar are just right and it irks me to no end. D= (but all your names seem fine, fantastic even, and very distinct, as do your characters which I cannot wait to see and please please post snippets of this as you go? =D)

[Brooke]

Reading through all that was sooooo worth it! Your universe sounds brilliant, and the characters are even better! I love the way you're going to portray the story. It will make it all the more unique.
I would also love to read snippets along the way! ^_^

[Robyn]

Ffuuuuhhuhuhuhuhuh this hurts it is so awesome.

so awesome

The whole concept and all the concepts within the concepts and the characters and descriptions and personalities are just kind of all exploding into one big fireworks show of "HOH GAHHR I WANT MORE" in my brain, and I can't wait to see how this turns out for you, Reve.

~so super brilliant~

sign me up for that whole excerpts as you go thing plz plz plz i would more than love that and you for it <3

[Zylaa]

Ok, Reve, you need to write this story, because I want to read it so badly. @_@ Everything and everyone is fascinating.

(And also, there is nothing wrong with 'shipping your own characters.)

[Deleted]

Oct 12, 2011 18:43:50 GMT -5 Kathleen said:

This sounds amazing and really creative and you are way courageous to try this. ^_^ (or maybe 'courageous' isn't exactly the right word but you know, it's daring. or something. I'll stop now.)

The world sounds so beautiful, and I know your writing will make it amazing, whatever you do. =D Yes I am way excited yet and also I have that same problem with names where names that all start with the same letter or contain the same number of syllables or sound very very similar are just right and it irks me to no end. D= (but all your names seem fine, fantastic even, and very distinct, as do your characters which I cannot wait to see and please please post snippets of this as you go? =D)

^_______^ yay <3

I am glad I am not alone on the name thing. It drives me craaaazy. @__@; But um since all the 'S' names don't end in the same letter I should be alright? =D

Oct 12, 2011 19:47:45 GMT -5 Brooke said:

Reading through all that was sooooo worth it! Your universe sounds brilliant, and the characters are even better! I love the way you're going to portray the story. It will make it all the more unique.
I would also love to read snippets along the way! ^_^

Thank you. =D

Oct 12, 2011 20:05:26 GMT -5 Robyn said:

Ffuuuuhhuhuhuhuhuh this hurts it is so awesome.

so awesome

The whole concept and all the concepts within the concepts and the characters and descriptions and personalities are just kind of all exploding into one big fireworks show of "HOH GAHHR I WANT MORE" in my brain, and I can't wait to see how this turns out for you, Reve.

~so super brilliant~

sign me up for that whole excerpts as you go thing plz plz plz i would more than love that and you for it <3

Yay thank you Robyn!

Oct 14, 2011 23:09:54 GMT -5 Zylaa said:

Ok, Reve, you need to write this story, because I want to read it so badly. @_@ Everything and everyone is fascinating.

(And also, there is nothing wrong with 'shipping your own characters.)

Yay I am glad it is fascinating. ^___^

And that is nice to hear. Although there is still this silly little conflict in my head that's going on like I SHIP THESE TWO SO ALL I WANT TO DO IS WRITE STORIES ABOUT THEM HOLDING HANDS AND HAVING STUPID ADVENTURES AND BEING AWESOME AND GAAAAH but then the other side is like "no Rv stick to the plan do what is right for the story" and it is all very confusing.

*

I guess I will have to post snippets now ahaha.

Seeing you guys excited about my story is making me excited about my story. xD

So um idea dartboard time? Yeah I think so too!

SPOILER: Click to show

In Psychology class we have moved on to studying sleep and all of a sudden there are all these new ideas springing up. This is good because I am still not entirely sure how to connect Dream to the real world yet. I know that Dream was somehow created, but I'm still trying to decide exactly how that is.

• Is Dream a machine? Or an entirely different universe? Who knows! I don't know! Only that scientists created Dream and doing so kind of led to ~ the end ~ in some roundabout way. Ripping the universe was one part of it, stealing people's dreams was the other. Or something. This is the part that is still really vague to me.
  
  
• I want to tie REM sleep and the other four stages of sleep into this somehow, but I am still not sure how to do so yet. xD; The four stages of sleep might be connected to Wake somehow… and when we were learning about REM there were these experiments that were done with rats and kittens, about how they were given a drug that surprised REM sleep and then had smaller forebrains in adulthood. I'm thinking that by creating Dream, they somehow prevented many people from going into REM sleep, which is where most dreaming is done. This is what leads to the zombie thing. Maybe because stealing dreams is what creates Dream? Anyway, this is a kind of dramatic, completely unrealistic case, but I think it would be kind of cool. xD
  
  
• Also I need to find a way to bring this guy into Dream somehow. Maybe he was the scientist? Maybe he existed before Dream was even created? He'll probably have something to do with Wake… Or maybe he'll just be a face that is always in the background. Hmmmm.
  
  
• By the time we get outside and see Coons and Elliott and Noah, the zombie thing has kind of died down a bit. People are starting to dream again, but their dreams are really weird, often considered dangerous. Not just because there's always the chance that zombies might eat you if you are sleeping, but also because some really dangerous things can happen to you in your dreams. Sometimes people die from dreams. And while no one knows what turns someone into a zombie, they are beginning to suspect it is because of dreams… There is this whole anti-dreaming mantra that is going through the post-world, and people tend to sleep in short, swift cycles.
  
  
• Remember the Ghosts? The mysterious creatures many dreamers thought were nightmares? It turns out that Ghosts are actually people from the real world. When they dream, they manifest in Dream as Ghosts. Ghosts are not always figures (although when they are they're kind of hazy, shifting). Ghosts are also scenes, landscapes, the vision of someone falling and falling over and over again. When a Reaver and an Aile band together to take down a Ghost, believing it to be in the same vein as a Nightmare. I've yet to decide whether killing a Ghost kills that person in real life, or simply turns them into a zombie. Maybe both. But it'll probably end up being the former.
  
  
• Since the shift and the creating of Dream, there is a part of every conscience that exists in both the real world and in dream. When someone dies naturally in the real world, what's left of them becomes a nightmare.
  
  
• I heard somewhere that the brain isn't capable of forming new faces and that all the people we've seen in dreams are just strangers we've forgotten. Thus, everyone who exists in Dream is just a leftover memory of the scientists that created Dream. How they will manifest in the real world, however, is still unclear to me. But I know that at one point someone from Dream will walk through Wake and come to the real world. That is for sure.
  
  
• Siobhan herself is the memory of one of the scientists. Somehow, she manages to meet the Ghost of her ~ real ~ self. (I have to come up with a name for real scientists Siobhan. Let's just call her S for now.) S is strapped to a machine, the prototype of the whole experiment. Everyone thinks she is dead. It's rather easy to believe - she's gotten old, dried out, become something like a corpse. But somehow her mind is still alive and still dreaming. Her Ghost is in contact with Siobhan. This is why Siobhan quits being an Aile and starts studying all the unheard of aspects of Dream. Anyway, S is very much like Siobhan, which means that S is manipulative. Always the scientist, S is trying to see if she can bring something out of Dream. She suspects that the only way to do so is through Wake. S is manipulating Siobhan, trying to get her to walk through Wake. Siobhan is aware of this, however. (She's taken all the basic qualities and characteristics of S and manifested into a sharper, colder, smarter version of her former self.) Siobhan doesn't want to take a step until she is 100% certain of everything. Siobhan does not want to walk through Wake because she does not think she would be able to return if she does. Thus, Siobhan ends up sending someone else through Wake and into the real world.
  
  
• The dreamers that walk through Wake will probably end up being Ruse and Sofie. They'll end up in the shambles of the laboratory that created Dream. That's where they will discover S.
  
  
• Noah is aware of the laboratory and what it does. She was there when Brigid connected herself to the machine and died in one world only to wake up in another. Noah thinks that the laboratory is the most important thing in the world and must remain a secret and must remain protected. (She's one of the few that still believes in the importance of dreams.) Eventually, she somehow leads Coons and Elliott there. Coons and Elliott meet Sofie and Ruse, and in turn they also meet S. They are kind of freaked out by the whole concept of everything, and somehow they get it into their heads that the only way to save their world is to destroy Dream. Or disconnect them. Or whatever. See, Dream has stolen the dreams of the world. They want to give those dreams back.
  

[Deleted]

more ideas to the dartboard!

SPOILER: Click to show

• I like how mysterious the name S sounds, but like I said before, I have waaaaay too many character whose names start with that letter already. I'm considering calling her Iris instead. Or Eden. Mostly leaning towards Iris, though.
  
  *
  
  
• I want to have a character that is running around trying to rebuild the Internet. Or something. He or she is trying to regain connection to the other parts of the world, trying to see if the disaster is widespread. He or she was probably a journalist of some sorts before all this happened, and they want to rebuild the media empire. They believe that nothing is more important than knowledge. They have a reporter's characteristics: smart, charming, quick to question, quick to suspect.
  
  
• I have no idea whether I am going to make this character a boy or a girl. I'm leaning towards girl, and calling her Cassandra, because ~ oooh meaningful ~
  
  
• I'm considering dividing this character in two: the reporter and the hapless programmer they've roped in to help them on their situation.
  
  
• If I go with this the reporter will probably end up being Cassandra and the programer will be a dude called… I don't know what yet. Some odd, foreign name. But um all this seems like typecasting so I don't know what to do help.
  
  *
  
  
• I want to have another character who has a makeshift radio station in the back of his van. He doesn't broadcast news, only music. He was a starving artist before the change and now he considers himself a starving revolutionary.
  
  
• I want to call him Scout or Simon or Silas but no there are already too many names that start with S. Um. He will be called Ezekiel! Yeah!! Everyone knows that this is obviously not his name. Ezekiel does not care because dude Ezekiel is such an awesome name and he is an awesome guy.
  
  
• Ezekiel is the closest thing this story has to a charming rogue. Because every ambitious ensemble cast piece needs someone Robin Hoodish.
  
  
• Ezekiel believes that art will save the world. He believes that if we lose culture, we lose everything. He drives across the country, in search of museums, art galleries, record stores, libraries, trying to scavenge what's left of man's creations. He's got a whole collection stored in a bank somewhere.
  
  
• If Noah and Ezekiel were ever to meet they'd probably get along like soul mates. Except they never meet. Everyone assumes they've met, but they haven't. Instead, they exchange cryptic messages on walls, never knowing who the other person is. Ezekiel thinks of Noah as his muse. Noah kind of idol worships Ezekiel, thinking of him as another saviour of things.
  
  
• Ezekiel and Laika end up travelling together a lot, simply because they are both wanderers and they end up crossing paths a lot and it's safer to travel in packs. Ezekiel likes these encounters an awful lot because he has an acoustic guitar stored in the back of his van and Laika has a harmonica and whenever they meet there is music.
  
  *
  
  
• Christopher is a bartender and a secret keeper and is one of the few people Dean actually trusts.
  
  
• Christopher is overbearing and dramatic and flirtatious and some people think he is drunk all the time but no he actually just acts that naturally.
  
  
• It's all part of his strategy, you see? People let their guard down when they think they have nothing to worry about.
  
  
• Christopher is sneaky and conniving and finds solace in knowing people's secrets. He always goes on and on about how everything has it's price and he's a busy guy with lots of customers and you'd better not waste his time he has important things to do, but actually he plays favourites and saves his best information for the people he likes.
  
  *
  
  
• Laika is still kind of a mystery to me. He's a travelling doctor who goes from sanctuary to sanctuary, tending to the wounded. He's no stranger to war. He is a wise, stoic, poetic figure who is finely tuned to nature. Seems to be about the only one who expresses a concern for the living things that aren't mankind.
  
  
• Still believes in dreams and takes some sort of herb or drug or whatever to ensure that he has dreams. (When he sleeps and enters Dream, unlike most people on earth, he has some control over what he can do.) He is well-aware of the danger and keeps moving so no one finds out.
  
  
• He is fascinated by Dream. But this is the cautious, wary sort of fascination of someone who is gathering intel before striking a blow...
  
  *
  
  
• Bastian is now Benedict Fletcher, because Benedict fits his character so much more than Bastian did. (He was originally going to be called Sebastian but OH NO NOT ANOTHER S NAME. Seriously what is my obsession with names that begin with S.)
  
  
• The Fletchers were a rather powerful, wealthy, influential family before everything came crashing down. Elliott was always sort of the black sheep of the family. He knew he wouldn't be the one to take up the reins, so whoop-de-doo he went on his way, doing his own thing, knowing that he'd be able do whatever he wanted to do with his life. (There's a part of him that resents this. Because he can go anywhere. Because he can go nowhere. Because he is Elliott Fletcher, good boy, sit boy, lie down boy, make us proud boy, but at the same time they're not expecting anything from him, because while they want to show him off, bright and shiny, he's not the golden boy. No. That's not him.) He keeps this sentiment buried deep down, though.
  
  
• Benedict Fletcher is the golden boy. I've yet to decide whether he'll be Elliott's brother or cousin, but Benedict has always been the heir, the one everyone has pinned their hopes on. It fits. Benedict is smart, handsome, charming. Everything he was conceived to be. His parents couldn't be more proud. The family couldn't be more proud. Then disaster came. Benedict's been training himself for his fate his entire life, and then suddenly that world doesn't exist anymore.
  
  
• Benedict is highly superficial and extremely stubborn. He's living in a world where status doesn't matter anymore, but he still acts like it does. He's a born leader, and he uses his skills to piece together a small sanctuary for those that survived the shift. They all see him as a hero, their saviour, and Benedict plays the part with lights and flourish. Except it's all a charade. There's nothing selfless about his actions, even though he paints them as such. Benedict simply wants power and admiration.
  
  
• Elliott is well aware of this, which is why he avoids the sanctuary, even though Benedict is the only family he has left. Benedict keeps trying to get Elliott wrapped into his schemes, saying that as family they have to work together, and as Fletchers they can do great things, but Elliott isn't buying any of it. Elliott doesn't really know what he's doing, only that he doesn't want to be involved with Benedict.
  
  
• Benedict is basically the biggest prick ever.
  
  
• Elliott and Benedict are each others foils. Still working out the details, but basically: Benedict is in the spotlight, but he doesn't care about anyone at all. Meanwhile, Elliott's actually doing something by saving lives and leading them to safety. They're both in careful control of their emotions (they have to be; they are Fletchers) but Elliott is warm while Benedict is cold.
  
  
• Coons hates Benedict because she totally knows he's a fake. Benedict hates Coons because he thinks she's a filthy ingrate and someone of Elliott's status should not be affiliating with someone like her.
  
  *
  
  
• I have no idea what to do with Lorelai and Ira yet. They're just sort of… there. In the background? I am considering a) over-affectionate married couple b) constantly bickering married couple c) old veteran BA in mouse-fu married couple that drink tea and eat biscuits in-between doing awesome Aile/Reaver antics and are constantly playing witty Greek Chorus d) ALL OF THE ABOVE? or e) not a married couple at all go back to the drawing board.
  
  
• Help me out with this last one? Which do you think sounds most intriguing.
  
  
• But blah if I make them charming I'll have to create someone unlikeable to balance it all out… Benedict can't be the only jerk. Oh well. SIDE CHARACTERS. WEEEEE.
  

and oh my god November is so close I can't believe it. @___@; I should start thinking about things like PLOT but no instead my head is just CHARACTERS CHARACTERS CHARACTERS.

But um the fact that I am still thinking things is a good thing right? Last year my muse kind of... ran off on me two weeks in. This year the muse has brought a cheerleading squad. I think I might actually accomplish this. Aw yesss.

[Robyn]

holy crap so much awesome character stuff

/so awesome/

i wanna chill w/ ezekiel lololol

[Deleted]

o this thing.

right.

so um instead of focusing on NaNo my muse seems to be like NO YOU SHOULD BE WRITING SELF-INDULGENT FANFICTION ABOUT THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLDS BEING FRIENDS AND STUFF.

and i have like so many essays to write this week um

\o/
what are my priorities

Oct 25, 2011 21:00:14 GMT -5 Robyn said:

holy crap so much awesome character stuff

/so awesome/

i wanna chill w/ ezekiel lololol

I want Ezekiel to be like, that dude who listens to a lot of Jack Johnson who everyone wants to chill with because he is just so chill like yo. Mission accomplished? Aw, yessss!

[Deleted]

So.

I think I've realized why I keep neglecting this.

I love this story and these characters and this idea but whenever I put my words to the keys it just comes out bland and boring and not up to my standards. And for a while, I didn't care. But after a while, I just got bored.

I'm not abandoning this, I'm just putting it back on the shelf. See, I don't think I'm ready to write something like this yet. I don't know how to write a story, let alone an epic, ensemble-cast fantasy that juggles several plots at once. And just… I keep trying to write these stories situated in fantasy, but I don't think I'm that kind of writer. I might grow into one, later, when I am older and wiser, and know how to tell a story, but right now I just sort of… am.

I think I need to start with something smaller. Instead of having something spread-out, then stalling when it comes to filling in the blanks, I should start with something that is a mess of tangents and in-betweens. Instead of a story filled with a bunch of nowheres, I should try something that is a bunch of nowheres leading to a story.

I've always really liked slice-of-life stories. And, honestly, I think my style is much more suited to that. I need to start with something that has a distinct voice. And while scape is a story I know by heart, I'm just not sure how to tell it. I'm not that kind of narrator. Yet.

… blah lots of words that don't really mean much tl;dr I am restarting NaNo. sorry to anyone who was looking forward to it haha. It might come back someday, manifest in the ways I wanted it to, instead of the OH MY GOD I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING mess it is now.

I've had this idea for a while, now. I've always wanted to write it but fumbled because I didn't think I had that concrete plot. But… I think it's more suited to what I am capable of. At the moment. I have enough to form the shape of a cage, but there's just enough space between the bars to give me the freedom I need. I may have no direction, but I have feet when it comes to this. If that makes sense. It does to me, I'm just not sure how to explain it, but anyhow…

I'm not going to say much because I don't want to fit it into a box. Because it could go in so many ways. It's something I want to let grow for itself, and while that usually never works, I have a good feeling about this.

All I'll say is it is about kids growing up in small towns and trying to figure it out.

They say write what you know. This is what I know.

Let's see where it takes me.

I'll worry about what happens next when I get there.

[Zylaa]

Well, that post was beautifully written, so I have high hopes for anything you do if you craft a "I'm moving on!" post so well. XD I was looking forward to this, yes, but if you feel you should put it on hold, go for what interests you. That's a big part of NaNo, after all. You're writing for you. <3

[♥ Bre]

Ooh, slice of life! =D Yay! I kinda have a feeling I'm writing a weirdo slice of life, too, but I'm not really sure how to do it.

I do think that your writing would be perfect for slice of life, though; you can make the most mundane things sound magical and utterly beautiful (heartbreaking, too).

Good luck! <3

[Deleted]

Ahhh thank you both. <33

I'm already feeling pretty good about this one. I mean, all I need to do is have a daily quota of ~2400 instead of 1667 and I will be fine, and I managed that yesterday so... if I keep it up then exciting things will happen!

I have noooo idea what I am doing lol but ah I am having fun writing this and seeing things grow as I go along.

Look I even have excerpts! It could probably do with some revision, sure, but that's in the long run. Right now I'm just going to focus on the words and see what happens.

SPOILER: Click to show

Everyone thinks Ingrid disappeared the night Connor Lawless drove his car into the Wetaskawin river, but the truth is I saw her two weeks later smoking in the shadows of the community hall.

The high school gymnasium was undergoing renovations that October and in the sake of keeping up with the pretence that we’d all celebrate Halloween safe and sober, the PTA had decided to move all celebrations to another spot they could hawk over. What a joke. Kids still got drunk and broke windows and egged the center statue in Mildew Park, but at least this time no one had to call the county fire department.

They would’ve been busy that night, anyway.

Before you can understand anything else you gotta know that Ingrid Nicholson was the closest thing this town ever had to a legend. She climbed the flagpole in grade five. She scaled the sprawling oak that grew by the vacant lot on Queens Street to grab a kite and when the branches snapped beneath her feet she caught herself before falling twenty feet. When the municipality threatened to cut down the tree, she chained herself to the trunk. She was the first one to see the ocean. She was the first one to go to New York. She was the first one to go to Europe. She was the first one to go anywhere that wasn’t this place. She had more stories than anyone in this town combined.

Really, it wouldn’t of been a surprise if she had packed up and left. Anyone who has ever been anyone hits the road. Even the washed-out kids pile their things into the rusty pick-ups they’d inherited from siblings who went to the city only to wind up back here.

Except she didn’t pack up. She just left.

Some say she was kidnapped. Some say she was abducted by aliens. Some say she fell into the river and that was the reason Connor almost drowned. Some say he was trying to save her but he just didn’t know how. Some say he was making sure she couldn’t swim to shore. Some say she never left at all, and she’s just been haunting the streets at night, watching us from our windows, recording all our secrets into a little black book so she can spring out just as the drama dies down, surprise, surprise, I’ve been here all along, and my hands are all dusty from fishing the skeletons out of your closets to prove it.

No one knows what happened to Ingrid, although why she left is anyone’s guess. She just went up and disappeared and three days later there were paper signs with her name and face.

The last time I saw Ingrid Nicholson was sometime between Halloween and November 1st, two weeks after the posters went up on all the telephone poles in town.

The only reason I didn’t tell anyone is that if I did, they’ll think she’s the one that started the fire.

… I need to find a better name for the river than "Wetaskawin", because that's the name of car dealership not far from here and every time I write it I get the commercial jingle stuck in my head. It's a good placeholder, though, I just wish naming things was easier than naming places. I mean, the town is called Westport and this is situated in the PRAIRIES. There are no ports here.

SPOILER: Click to show

I turn my eyes from the sky - cloudless and starless - and that’s when I see her.

She isn’t wearing a costume, but for the way she blends into the shadows and stonework, she might as well be a chameleon. I almost didn’t see her in the dusk, she was so still and silent for a second I thought she really had died and I was just staring down her ghost. But the tip of her cigarette rose and fell like something breathing, a shooting star, a burning ember, and she nods as she catches my eye.

“Oh,” I say. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“How long have you been standing there?”

Ingrid Nicholson, lost and legendary, smiles and takes another drag of her cigarette. “Long enough.”

“Okay cool.”

She smirks and takes a few steps towards me, close enough that I can see her skin and ski-jacket, but still clinging to the shadows. If someone were to open the door, they wouldn’t see her at all.

“It’s Sully, right? Sally?”

“It’s both, actually.”

Sally Sullivan. It was a name befit for a caricature, a cartoon character, not a real person.

Ingrid smiles apologetically. “Sorry. I was never good with names.” She taps her cigarette, sending a few sparks spiraling down. They disappear before they hit the ground, but when I blink I see their star-shapes imprinted against my eyelids.

She shifts her free hand into her pocket. “Want a light or - “

“Nah. It’s cool. I don’t smoke.”

“Alright. Suit yourself.”

I stand there, not quite knowing what to do, letting the awkward silence fill the air. Ingrid just watches me with her wide eyes, her enigmatic smile, treating the quiet as if it were some precious, fragile thing that might break if we spoke too soon or too loud.

“I thought you left,” I finally say.

“Yeah,” she mutters, ducking her head in a gesture that could’ve been coy if she weren’t Ingrid make sea monkeysing Nicholson. “So did I.”

“What made you come back?”

Ingrid shrugs. I have never seen a shrug so graceful and elegant.

“I dunno.”

I’ve known Ingrid since third grade. I can still remember the day she first came to school in a blaze of defiance and glory. We sat side by side all through-ought fourth grade. We were science partners for a brief moment last semester when Patrick called in sick and hers was suspended for throwing frogs at unsuspecting freshman. This is the longest conversation we have ever had.

“I was planning to say good bye but...”

“I can go get Connor if you want - “

“No. It’s cool. I kind of changed my mind.” She raises her hand but doesn’t put the cigarette to her lips. Instead, she seemed to watch it burn. The ashes fall to the grass in withered shapes like the first few snowflakes, the kind that melts before they catch hold.

“Okay good I was just being polite I didn’t really want to talk to him.”

“Yeah. I don’t blame you.” She smiles the kind of smile you only see in movies. All remorse and ruefulness and nostalgia, teenage tragedy and martyrdom.

I shiver slightly and rub my arms.

“Well, what exactly brought you back? I mean, if it were me I’d leave this town and never come back.”

Ingrid laughs and it is nothing like the Ingrid-laugh I’m used to hearing - in hallways and classrooms and everywhere else there is to be in this town. She then tosses her cigarette to the ground and douses it with the twist of her heel.

“I used to think that, too,” she says, and strangely enough it doesn’t sound condescending. “Now I’m not so sure what to think.”

She looks at me with her sad, wide eyes. They’d be much too big for anyone else’s face, but Ingrid manages to take the long lashes and round eyes and turn them Bambi-like, all ingenue innocence and kicked-puppy-mournful.

“Can you keep a secret?”

I’m saying sure before I even realize what I’m doing

“Don’t tell anyone you saw me here.”

“Okay.”

“Thanks!” She grins and releases her breath in a gust of mist. It’s the same color as the clouds right now, as the city at night. Her fingers twitch with the absence of her cancerstick. “Not to be rude or anything, but don’t you have a friend you need to pick up?”

“[sic]”
Patrick is probably dead or dying by now.

“Um,” I say, not quite sure how to say goodbye. How could you say goodbye to someone like Ingrid Nicholson, anyway? There was no pattern to her, no predictability. You could know her all your life and never have anything to say, but then you’d find her in the back-alley parking lot behind the community center on Halloween and next month she could be tossing rocks at your window.

She waves her hands, forget it, forget it. “I was never here.”

“Yeah if anyone asks I was just talking to myself.”

“That’s the spirit.”

I take a step towards the door, but pause. “Good luck, I guess.”

She smiles again and there is nothing Mona Lisa about it.

“Yeah. You too.”

As I walk through the door, I take one last glance over my shoulder. She’s finally stepped out of the shadows, and in the glow of the single streetlight, she almost looks ethereal, limbs drawn-out and skin stretched until it shows all the wrong colors. She’s drawn another cigarette from her pockets and I can’t tell whether the haze that surrounds her is from the smoke or the cold. There’s a look on her face that I’d never seen before, but the door slams shut before I can figure out what it is.

Aha this is turning out waaaaay more teenager-y than I anticipated but… somehow I am okay with that? lol if only Sully were a boy then I could say I was channeling John Green and had some semblance where I was going but… I HAVE NO IDEA! Sully turned out a lot more cynical than I anticipated, so i"m still struggling to find her voice, but once I do I figure it'll be easy.

No plot, really. Not yet. Just aimless kids in an aimless town filled with aimless people and resenting being so aimless. It'll mostly chronicle the adventures of Sully and her friend Patrick. Because I want to write something where ~FRIENDSHIP~ is given a lot of value. And already their relationship is like my favourite thing. A major theme will be self-identity. Or in Sully's case, lack of thereof. (As represented through the way she goes by both "Sully" and "Sally". Look at me so smart with my names ehehe.) Sully is both filled with dreams and filled with doubt, whimsical and pessimistic.

I'm not sure how Ingrid fits into this. She's sort of a domino, and her disappearance sets of a series of events, because sometimes you just meet people in brief moments and they inadvertently change your life and see something of meaning in an interaction where there was none. Things come and go and happen. But that seems so unfair to Ingrid…

Mostly, it seems like Sully is that condescending kid that resents everyone in her town because she's worried she'll turn out just like them. She both admires and envies Ingrid, placing her on the pedestal of "PEOPLE WHO ARE TOO BIG FOR THIS PLACE", when really she's just idolizing Ingrid without really seeing her at all. Unravelling the mystery of Ingrid's legacy is what leads to her reevaluating her life and that of others around her.

Or something.

Blah. I have ideas. I'll see what happens with them, I guess.

[Zylaa]

"sometime between Halloween and November 1st" but but there is no time between... ohhh, you mean that night! XD

It's awesome writing. <3 And does indeed remind me very much of John Green. I mean The Fault in Our Stars will be from a girl's perspective, so you could still say your writing channels him? =D