Brief Post-NaNo Update: Set It On Fire!

~ crossovercreativechaos

Why yes, I do love flammable bad guys.

AKA I am finally getting into the big climactic fight scene in Leatherbound, even if I have to drag the words out a few hundred at a time. Because fight scenes. They fight your brain, too.

Seriously, if part of a story is being particularly testy, try setting something on fire. Or blowing something up. Anything to distract the characters from politics or Angst and get them refocused on, “Okay, need to do something to keep breathing.”

Undead characters may have to skip the “breathing” part. But stuff going boom ought to get their attention anyway.

…I’m not yet sure if the building they’re in burns down. I don’t think so. This isn’t Chicago, and there are no wizards involved. 😉 But major property damage, yes.

When I finally do get the rough set I’m going to have to set it aside for at least a month and think about something else. Because while I knew how the story started, and how I want it to end, this rough draft went every-which-way in between. It’ll take some time off before I can come back to it, go through, and say, “Okay, this element stays, this one isn’t needed; this one should stay but I should tweak it to be more efficient now that I finally know what I’m aiming at.”

Geh. *Thud.*

Which brings me to thoughts of, so what should I poke after?

ATM I just know I want it to not be Urban Fantasy. I need something different. More action, less social stuff.

In case you’re curious, currently I have at least 5 semi-serious origfic plotbunnies on tap. Right now, two seem to be a smidge ahead of the rest. One’s a fantasy zombie outbreak. The other’s where an Evil Overlord gets smart and arranges to summon and kidnap a Hero himself.

But that’s right now. I have no idea which bunnies will come out on top when I finally write “The End.” I might come up with something completely different. Heck, the fantasy zombie idea’s been hanging out in my ideas folder since last year.

As for fanfic ideas – still want to do Track of the Apocalypse. If I can just somehow find enough time to rewatch Kabaneri!

26 thoughts on “Brief Post-NaNo Update: Set It On Fire!”

  2. >Why yes, I do love flammable bad guys.>
    There’s a problem with bad guys that you need to set on fire to kill. It’s possible that they are tough/inhuman enough that while the fire might kill them (in fairly short order) they probably have the sheer resilience to run up and grab you while they are abaze. Ergo the hero being far enough away and/or resistant to set on fire would be very handy.
    >As for fanfic ideas – still want to do Track of the Apocalypse. If I can just somehow find enough time to rewatch Kabaneri!>
    Apparently my youtube recommendations like the cut of your jib.
    This very well done Kabaneri AMV popped up and instantly went into my ‘liked’ folder after watching.
    Gloria Fortis Miles

    Jack: “Can we go back to the place with the big honking bugs? That place made more sense.”

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      1. >And *EG* can you imagine Jack’s face when Bullets Do Nothing?>
        Well presumably they’ll do ‘something’. I would assume that whatever AP ammunition that SG teams are equipped with to punch through Jaffa armor should be capable of at least doing some damage to Kaban heart cages.

        Of course problem is keeping that short controlled burst of shots targeted at the heart cage of something/someone running pell-mell at you like those scenes from World War Z.

        Because while some Kabane can be clumsy and slow, it was very bluntly demonstrated that they can move at a very good clip.

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      3. That;s assuming SG1 would go for headshots. Don’t quote me on this but from what I understand, in a firefight soldiers are trained to shoot for the center of mass.

        And in a fight against Kabane you simply don’t have time to pick your shots unless you’re high up or are a Kabaneri like Mumei who can probably shoot the wings off a dodging fly.

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  3. Yes, please, to Track of the Apocalypse. I’ve wanted it since you first mentioned it – looking forward to seeing how Uryuu and his hunters handle knowing they were betrayed by Biba to the extent they actually were. Had the hunters figured it out yet or was Uryuu still deciding how to tell them?
    Hmm, guess I’m re-reading Sweeten now… I was about to sleep, you’re being hazardous to my health. 😅

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      1. >(Deserted city. No one’s been there in decades. Surely there can’t still be… aw, nuts.)>
        “Alight, who tempted the Gods? Because they are going to be on undercarriage clean-up duty for the next three weeks when we get out of here!”

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      3. >*EG* Ah, you anticipate one of the scenes I have planned. Mwah-ha-hah…..>
        Let’s see if I can go two for two then. 😛

        Namely Carter geeking over the Koutetsujou’s engine.
        “Yes, it’s a train engine sir, but you’d never be able to generate enough power to move something this massive this fast from just burning coal or oil without stopping every few hours to re-fuel and take on more water.”

        “Honestly between the limited schematics that I’ve been allowed to see and the feeling of naquadah I get from it; this thing has more principles in common with a nuclear reactor then what we know as a steam engine.”

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      5. At least Sweeten only has four chapters, it took less than an hour. It’s not as if it was Embers…

        I should not have said that.
        I should NOT have said that.

        *searching through authorpage, grumbling*
        You’d think I would know to quit while I was ahead.

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  4. …. An Indiana Jones style DnD group dungeon crawling. Only it’s almost but not quite Isekai. Because they’re sending part of themselves down, but they still have meta knowledge. New meaning to ‘knowledge seperation’ yeah? Not sure what else is going on, besides massive crack, but it would be, interesting.

    Or maybe our group from Count Taka trying DnD.

    Narrate a game of Mario Kart. Take a book series and try and genre twist it. (Like, say, Under a Graveyard Sky done as if it were a High Fantasy. That’s how I amuse myself sometimes. Fun, not gonna do anything with it, but let’s me stretch a little.)

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  5. Well, considering your suggested Evil Overlord Summons Hero Preemptively fic idea, I’ve got another related one: Dungeon Keeper Ami does a good job of “Hero having to play the part of Evil Overlord (and doing exceedingly well) so as to achieve Heroic Stuff”, but I’ve not yet seen a good one for the mirror of that, “Evil Overlord having to play the part of Heroic Leader because of the constant influx of competition for the position of Evil Overlord (that doesn’t seem to understand that if you destroy everything, then there’s nothing left for you to rule)”. He’s sick and tired of all the other would-be Evil Overlords who casually destroy everything they touch because even when they can plan long term, they just can’t seem to get over the Evil Urges To Destroy. He wants that stuff. If they destroy it, he can’t have it. And the only way to get people to not interfere with his attempts to save the stuff so he can take it is to pretend to be the Hero.

    Obviously this would be one of the variant of pragmatic evil, with the ability to put off immediate gratification for long term goals, and to recognize that he can make there be more stuff to take by not taking it immediately or carelessly.

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      1. Not just “the Evil Overlord is actually kinda nice”, or “the Evil Overlord is just pretending to be a good guy so the real good guys don’t figure things out, while he’s really doing gratuitously evil things in the background including maniacal laughter”?

        This is explicitly intended as “Yes, he really is an Evil Overlord. He’s just realized that there’s more stuff to steal if it’s not all constantly being ruined by gratuitous evil. And he keeps finding himself having to actually do good-guy things not just for disguise purposes, but because they’re the most efficient way of achieving his desired pragmatically selfish evil.” A “I can’t allow apocalypses to happen, because this world is where the stuff I want to steal is kept” situation.

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  6. I’ve got an idea for you.Dungeon Core litRPG done in Final fantasy style with a mix of That One Puzzle! and Boss in Mook Clothing. Bonus points for Awesome References!

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  7. The idea is that the core took a leaf from Dark Souls, so Every enemy would be Final Dungeon in any other area. The adventurers would have a sign posted :Wanted- Scholars, linguists,rangers and assorted priests! Parties that don’t have at least one Will TPK!

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