Storyflash: Avatar

Hmm...recently, I haven't had a lot blog about. Nothing especially interesting, anyway.

But this is something I've done before, I think. Anyway, this is an idea I came up with while walking home from school one day. It underwent a process known as snowballing - meaning more and more bullshit accumulated until it became a proper story idea.

Unfortunately, like all of my story ideas, it is a BIG idea. Like, HUGE. So, this idea probably won't make it to paper, or even to MS Word. But whatever. Thinking of stories is more fun than actually writing them.

Onto the crux of the story, which I will present in three parts. Please ignore the names. They just sound cool. You are, of course, welcome to try and fit it into the story somehow.

1. Sapphire Mind.

This part starts off with Lt. Surgens. Or rather, Ian Shearer - Lt. Surgens is, after all, nothing but the name he uses for most of this MMORPGs. Shearer is a particularly avid gamer, and has been playing MMORPGs since he was 10. Since then, his characters have always been within the top 50 ranked players in any major MMORPG. His favourite class is a Warlock/Sniper (depending on the genre) and he loves using Wind Magic/AP rounds.

One day, Lt. Surgens or Shearer (let's call him Shearer for now), is met by a couple of blacksuited men from the FBI (think MIB), and is taken to a secret facility (isn't it always) out in one of the smaller atolls in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. When he reaches there, Shearer is introduced to the rest of his "team".

They are:

1. A well-known manga artist
2. A martial arts expert
3. An engineer working for Boeing
4. A level designer from Blizzard

The actual identities of these men [or women], are of course, left up to the guys who actually write the story.

Together, they make a team of five, and are shown around the small atoll and notified of the basic geography of the surrounding islands. After being introduced the land they will be staying in, the five men are taken to the Headquarters - a giant Aircraft Carrier situated about twenty miles from the islands themselves. There, they are introduced to Captain Oliver Runt, and informed about the entire situation.

Apparently, three days ago, the US Military's scientific research base on the nearby islands was raided and several pieces of sensitive equipment stolen. The raiders were quickly chased by the military, but all efforts to recapture them and the stolen equipment have failed. And of course, the Captain can't call down airstrikes upon the atolls because it would be stupid to risk destroy the instruments. So, the military has called upon five unlikely heroes to save the day.

Of course, it begs the question of why the military would entrust such an important job to a bunch of misfits who couldn't fire a gun nor make head or tail of a map. Naturally, Captain Oliver has predicted the question would arise, and so the five are directed to a "Testing Room" where they are met by Dr. Manx, a strange, quirky (aren't they always) scientist who is involved with the research that was being conducted.

Apparently, the scientists were working on an instrument known as the Imagination Transpirer. The name is pretty much self-explanatory. Supposedly, whatever the user thinks with be realised. There are, of course, restrictions, including the fact that whatever the user thinks must be possible in real life, although the degree to which it is possible is...limitless.

For example, in real life, with the correct amount of force, you are capable of melting a rock with nothing but friction alone. The Transpirer allows you to do that, but using only the force of your mind. Of course, the Transpirer also allows you to protect yourself from any side effects of your spells/abilities/mind, so the molten rock won't actually harm you. It will, however, harm anyone else, even if they have Transpirers.

The reason why the five of them were chosen was because of their creative minds. Those soldiers who were equipped with the Transpirer at first were easily beaten by their opponents, because most of the Soldiers didn't have the imagination to use the Transpirer effectively, using it only to increase their sight range, accuracy, etc. The raiders were capable of destroying them hands down. A terrible waste of a Transpirer.

Thus, the five of you were assembled to provide the right amount creativity required for this mission. However, just creativity is not enough to prepare you for a chase after several hardened criminals. Even Commandos need years of training before their first missions. You guys are gonna have only 5 days before you are sent out into the field.

Immediately after that, the five of you are taken off to hone your skills at the use of the Transpirer. Since each of you have very different areas of expertise, you are taken to train separately for a few days before meeting back again.

Shearer quickly gets used to the Transpirer, and realises that his forte is striking the air so hard that it causes a gust of wind to slash through even the hardest objects. This is obviously a result of playing too many MMORPGs as Warlock with Wind Affinity. However, this time, too many games is a good thing, because Shearer adapts to the Transpirer quickly and eventually invents many new abilities.

[WRITER NOTE: Now, the Transpirer is obviously an instrument of...interesting qualities. It is up to you - YES YOU - to come up with a unique way of portraying this instrument. It could have side-effects such as memory loss, or using it could feel like you're having constipation. Or it could feel like you're having an **gasm. Up to you, heheh. Nothing too disgusting though.]

Anyway, back together as a team, the rest of the group shows off their unique abilities to the others, and the Team Coordinator - a subordinate of the quirky Dr. Manx teaches them on how to use their abilities as a group, as well as introduces them to the idea of the a Group Transpiration.

The Group Transpiration is an especially difficult process, because all of you must think of the same thing in order it to happen. Of course, smaller scale Group Transpirations can occur, but the larger the group, the power of the Transpiration increases exponentially. There are many other factors, of course, but that's the general trend.

So, after practicing for a bit - and failing miserably - the group is ready to take on the raiders. The group is airlifted onto the island, where they are given some rations and several weapons (daggers, handguns, flashbangs, etc.) and left to fend for themselves.

This is where the free-for-all part comes in. Each of the members of the team have vastly different abilities, and even Shearer's abilities are not pre-set. Also I haven't really got a feel for the group dynamics, which is pretty unusual considering that I usually do for most of my story ideas. All I can say is that off the top of my head, there is no romance (SHOCKING.), the martial arts expert is a tsundere (fierce, kick-the-other-guy-in-the-balls-woman), the manga artist is a weirdo, and the Blizzard employee is a bastard. Shearer's closest friend is the Boeing Engineer, and his worst enemy is the Blizzard employee.

In any case, the story continues with Shearer and his fighting and chasing down the enemy raiders. The entire group begins to level up, until a point when a surprise attack by the Raiders (who also have access to Transpirers) manages to land a Group Transpiration, obliterating the surrounding landscape. The original group (let's call them the Hunters to prevent confusion) is separated from each other and quickly move on to the other islands on the atoll.

The story itself is pretty vague at this moment. This is, of course, where the writers can come in and inject their own story material. Who are the Raiders? What are they like? What abilities do they have? When the Hunters are separated, can they keep in touch (ie, presence of radios, etc.), and do they reunite? When writing about the Hunters, will you focus on all of them at once? Or maybe just Shearer and his efforts to fight against the remaining Raiders? What kind of style do you want to use? A Glen Cook, dark, mercenary band tone? Or maybe a Melty Blood kind of tone? It completely depends on you.

In any case, most of this part of the story involves fighting the Raiders on the island. During this time, the Hunters (or at least Shearer) begins to suspect that something is very wrong with the entire operation, especially after ten days have passed. The fact that the Raiders still haven't left the island via air or sea is not very believable, and things are getting a little rough since most of their food supply has been used up.

It all finally comes down to one final confrontation with the Raiders after the Blizzard employee manages to get off a signal flare before he is obliterated by one of the Raiders. The remaining Hunters rush towards the area, firing their long range attacks before falling upon the Raiders. However, the Hunters are in no state to fight the Raiders, and everyone except Shearer and the manga artist is killed by the Group Transpiration unleashed by the Raiders.

Shearer and the manga artist (let's give him/her a name...Katsura will serve my purposes) are only alive because of their jobs - both of which involve a lot of coming back from the dead/fighting in seemingly impossible physical conditions. So, both Shearer and the manga artist continue to fight in a five against two battle, and against all odds, manage to take down at least two of the Raiders.

However, sheer pluckiness was never a good bet when faced with uneven odds (not even in manga), and the manga artist eventually falls to combined fire. The Raiders unleash a final Group Transpiration, and Shearer is killed.

Okay, so that was the end of Part 1. To be honest, I wanted to write all three parts into one blog post, but seeing as one part has already taken up a huge amount of space, I think I'll save the other two parts for another time. And just in case you were wondering, yes, you can change the ending of Part 1 - which I admit leaves the reader going a bit "WTF Just happened?" But you know...make it believable, that's all I ask. Then again, when the story is about hikkikomoris and manga artists and Blizzard employees, I can't really ask for a believable story, can I?

Alright, finally, just to assure you guys who actually still read the blog - the next few parts are still going to be related to this one, to make for one big-ass story. Damn it, I have an overactive imagination.

Storyflash: A Historian's Dream

Before I actually start on my story, I would like to say that while these are my own ideas, several of these ideas have come from other material that I have read/watched/played. Thus, although I don't claim credit for those ideas, I claim credit for my story itself!

Anyway, after the disclaimer, I'd like to say that once again, my readership has plummeted, mostly due to the financial crisis (no one can afford internet connection these days). While this makes me sad and all, at least no one will steal my ideas!

However, several personages, such as Mr. Rickroll, Commander Lt. Surgeons, the German Ninja (henceforth known as Pockmark Pete), and the Gull Pudding seller from down the lane are welcome to try their hand at actually crafting some semblance of a story from these random musings! Mr. Hellbent is strictly prohibited from touching this shit.

Anyway, the story itself.

Well, imagine a giant game of Risk. Except that instead of tokens and counters, you use real armies and soldiers and generals to fight against each other. These generals, armies and soldiers can be picked from any time period in history, thus allowing fights between great leaders and warriors such as Lee (from the American Civil War) against Miyamoto Musashi or an army led by Sun Tzu himself. Thus, if the author wants, he or she can have epic battles on a global scale. Also note that Oceans and Seas are veritable battlegrounds, and pitting the medieval armadas of Spain against the might of the Russian Navy is completely acceptable.

In addition, several legendary artifacts (be they weapons, creatures, swords) are hidden around the world, and they are in the exact places that they are supposed to lie in legend. Asgard (which can be a hidden re-fueling station, a munitions depot, or just a location where a legendary navy/army/air force is held) should be located somewhere north of Scandinavia. Of course, creatures such as the Minotaur will be found on Crete, and so on and so forth.

Each General will be given missions, just like a real game of Risk. These missions, however, are not restricted to merely conquests or anything like that. Each mission should either suitably difficult, or they could be given by chance, allowing one race to have a huge advantage over the others. This is, of course, up to the authors. One interesting mission, for example, would be to have the Spartans attempt to achieve space flight. A more conventional one would be for the Middle East to completely and utterly rule the seas. Once again, it is up to the author to decide what he wants to do.

For those of you who like style, ethical debates, and what not, this is an idea: you can try taking the perspective of the people playing the game. The players have no idea what the people within the game are going through - it would be interesting to contrast their thoughts with that of the people playing the game itself. Another possible perspective would be to let the people within the game know that they are actually playing a game. What will it do to their psyche? Will they follow orders at all? Will they spontaneously give up? I have no idea. You decide!

Finally, as a parting shot, remember the words any time period in history is extremely broad. This means, in effect, that you can pick factions from the future. This can include everyone's beloved mecha-flying Japanese, British armies capable of calling down orbital strikes, and maybe a technocratic nation. It's freaking open. In addition, you have the option of not choosing armies at all. The CIA is completely capable of being an entity that fights toe to toe with other nations of the world using nothing but intelligence and communications. It would interesting to see how they fight. Of course, factions themselves are not the only things than can be added from any time period. Artifacts are also allowed to be from the future. The first nation to get enough manpower into space, can in fact, be allowed to control the Death Star (this is, of course, an exaggeration). Or maybe the first nation to find the Star Trek Enterprise will be awarded with the technology to teleport troops anywhere in the world.

Of course, this is completely up to the author, which will not be me. Hopefully, someone will take this up. Or not. Whatever, I don't really care, this was just a random musing. Oh yeah, before I end, here is a list of books/games that I got the ideas from.

1. Risk (obviously)
2. Fate/Stay Night
3. Ender's Game
4. Time's Eye

Well, whether or not you actually know the books doesn't matter to me. Just know this is where the ideas originated from, and that I don't claim to have invented everything. Just so you know.