NaNo Update – Broke 32 K

~ crossovercreativechaos

Ah, the joyous sounds of crashing wordcounts….

Hopefully the next bit will be less talky and more action. Granted, the talky part was needed to set up some of the later mayhem – not just the information, but the fact that this new and very scary info on how magic actually works is starting to get out to the general public. Who are, quite reasonably, not at all happy to learn that how they thought magic worked is not quite accurate.

Or to be more blunt, they were lied to up, down, and sideways by the people who were out in the spotlights, and the people who knew better and didn’t have ill intent were hiding in the shadows trying not to get noticed.

Yeah. This will get messy.

Part of the interesting bits going on under the surface is who’s on humanity’s side, and why. There are going to be a multitude of reasons, from “I hate the other guys” to “hey, I like X person, we get along okay” to the rational “You do realize how many billions of humans there are on the planet, right? And you want to pick a fight with all of them? Not me, man!”

*G* Of course, every bunch has its idiots….

18 thoughts on “NaNo Update – Broke 32 K”

  2. I think my favourite reason for one or more monsters (factions) to side with Humanity is the very basic:

    /Lots/ of Creatures were once human, and plenty of those that aren’t/were never still fall under the heading of ‘people’.

    It’s not just ‘they’ve got us outnumbered’ and it’s not just ‘I get along with Bob, Aerith, and Eve okay’ it’s the ‘why would I /want/ to fight them?’ Various creatures recognizing that just because you are different does /not/ require you to go to war over those differences. Peaceful coexistence is totally possible and basic empathy can be found in monster and human alike. Maybe Joe the Changeling, Angua the Werewolf, and Detritus the Troll just don’t like seeing someone get hurt, and – when given a chance that /isn’t/ the same as signing their own death warrant – are willing to try and stand up for the little guy.

    But maaaybe I’m getting ahead of myself on how things are shaking out in /this/ particular Broken Masquerade and how supernatural critters work in this setting. I am assuming that for some creatures coexistence just isn’t possible (though, since Aiden’s dad could almost be considered an /ally/ in A Net of Dawn and Bone and was a powerful demon of Hell itself… It kind of suggests that yes – humans /can/ coexist with the vast majority of supernatural creatures peacefully. It’s not /easy/, but it is /possible/).

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    1. Forgot to add:

      You are 110% correct on every bunch having its idiots though, so horrific tragedy and bloody conflict is practically a guarantee in even /my/ rose-tinted hope.

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    2. I had two flavors of thought.

      Civis Romanus Sum

      The second I can provide two explanations for.
      1. There’s a type of society described as familial amoralist. It is not that unusual, especially historically. This is a society that does not trust outside of family, and doesn’t necessarily count those not family as human.
      2. LeBlanc’s Constant Battles suggests that a fairly typical human society, historically and especially prehistorically has such level of endemic warfare such that 1/3 to 1/4 of men die to violence in a population that is doing okay or better.

      Monster societies aren’t necessarily changed as much by the forces which changed human societies. So older forms might be more common among monsters which are pretty close to human.

      It says something about me that the positive possibilities and the negative possibilities combined to create the impression of a fun story.

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    3. One of the interesting things I’m finding in this plot is that Aariel had a Plan. It’s about to crash into at least two other Plans. Oo boy.

      And yes. “Not easy but possible” has been the case for most creatures, most of the time. Usually enforced by a Stompy Foot of Good or two when things start eating people in large numbers. But Steven threw that balance off, and it’s going to have a lot of reverberations before people try to reach a new equilibrium.

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      1. One of the things that struck me about Aariel and Steven’s interaction in Net was that (1) Aariel is not a fan of Stupid Evil (Useful Evil on the other hand, heh…) and (2) Steven seems to think that just because an action is Evil means that other forces of Evil think that the action is a good idea, which is veering dangerously close to Stupid Evil territory. Actually, it sounded like pretty much everything about Steven’s interactions with Aiden as far as the supernatural goes were considered to be Stupid Evil by Aariel and that’s before Steven questioned Aariel’s loyalty to Yaldabaoth. Never mind whatever Stimson is… he’s demonic, but probably isn’t from Yaldabaoth’s court if I’m reading descriptions correctly… and something tells me Yaldabaoth won’t like that.

        Long story short, I could totally see Myrh and Co. going after whatever Steven’s planed only to find out that some of the beings he was working with have decided he’s a liability now instead of an asset…

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  4. So fun fact. The reason Hitler didn’t invade Switzerland? He really wanted to bt his generals convinced him that every person in the country hiding behind every rock, tree, and cardboard box would cost him too much(the swiss had and still have a militia). You know…. you just pissed off billions of people. I know some of ya’ll are old enough to remember the pitchfork routine. But see here is the thing. Science. Let Myrrh at a chemist or physcist that is pissed off and all of a sudden…

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  5. Of course, every bunch has its idiots….

    Ain’t that the truth . . .

    Adding to the fact that there are many kinds of idiot each bringing their own trouble and/or complication to the mess.

    Especially since in some ways hateful idiots are easier to handle than the well-intentioned or well-meaning idiots.

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