Story ideas

In case you missed the thread description, this thread is all about you posting your story ideas, and for the rest of the board to comment or give feedback, in an effort to further your idea.  It isn't meant to be a CCW project; this is strictly so that writers can bounce ideas off of us.  Also, this in no way erases my Dream a Little Dream posts in the Soothsayer Says thread.  Those are purely dreams I had that would make for a good story.

To start things off, here is a story idea I've been thinking about for some time now.  It's... it's got some anime influence.  The story may be similar to something else, but I haven't come across it yet.  If it does exist, let me know.  I don't know if this is a full blown story, a comic book, or movie.  Again, it is probably heavily influenced by anime.  A lot of the story that I've created certainly has common elements, it's just for the life of me I can't actually put a name to this.  I think it's original, but if it is, it's pretty sad that they haven't done this.

no working title, intro

1.  View of a combat aircraft style cockpit, hands flipping switches on the left side, the right hand deftly moving the joystick.  The HUD flashes orange, a warning siren can be heard.  Stars can be seen streaking by as the pilot moves left, right.  Laser fire, the sounds of explosions being too close.

2.  View now outside the craft, stars all around.  Craft isn't an aircraft, but a mecha.  Other similar craft can be seen around this one, all baring similar markings.  Several can be seen exploding, being hit by laser fire.  The craft we are paying attention to is still darting about.  Camera pans, goes behind our mecha so we can see the enemy craft.

3.  A big craft.  Gigantic.  Think of something between a shadow craft and something organic.  Spines / tentacles line the ship.  Smaller drone-like craft are flying about, swarming from the massive craft.  A lot of radio chatter concerning the holding of the line, of not allowing the {name not yet determined} to cross, that they must be pushed back, that they mustn't be allowed to return.  Usual anime stuff here.

4.  Several of the mecha 'charge up', become energized. streak towards the swarms.  Whenever a drone strikes the energy surrounding the mecha, it explodes (the drones).  We see a few of the mecha moving in formation, each spiraling around each other, clearing a path.  Our mecha is trailing behind them, following in the cleared area, carrying something, a bomb of sorts, upon it's back.  A Large bomb.

5.  The large enemy craft takes notice.  As blue laser fire erupts from the spines, a central port / eye begins to glow orange.  Radio chatter about needing to take evasive action, others talking about staying the course, hoping that the {shields} will hold.  They don't.  The main cannon fires, envelops the mecha clearing the path, orange spraying out from them like an umbrella.  Our mecha is still pushing forward, the guards disintegrate.

6.  Dammit dammit dammit.  Energy levels at 3%.  Systems failing.  Release release release.  Mecha stops, the bomb carries on due to momentum, drifts closer to the enemy craft.  Initiate survival protocols.  As our mecha slowly rolls backward, we see the last of the mecha exploding.  In the background, a water and cloud covered planet.  The mecha continues to rotate; we see the bomb moving closer, dwarfed by the strange ship.  Tentacles curl inward, slowly wrapping themselves around the craft in a protective bubble.  Contact is made; first nothing, but then...

7.  WHAM.  An explosion pushes our mecha fast, closer to the planet, into its atmosphere.  Survival protocols complete, impact imminent.  The ground looms closer, closer, the land mass unrecognizable.

8.  BLACK

...

If this were an anime, the above would be edited and used for the intro for the entire first season.  Likewise, if this were an anime, the following would play out for the first few episodes.  I don't know if I should use the "beginnings" section to be the opener, or if I should hold off for the next part.  *ponders*  Right now I'm thinking as the next part, the flashback or origins episodes.  I'm writing it now because it is fresh in my mind, but I'm going to cut / paste when I am done.  Leaving this paragraph up for sake of completeness.

no working title, beginnings

1.  Mecha is broken, crashed, ruined and charred.  Impact crater is immense.  We see two giant feet move into the picture, each large than the craft itself, floating above the mecha.  Camera pans, looks up.  Solar lens flare, a large shadow hides the sun, and we see the pilot falling down, a parachute above him.  As the pilot looks around, we can see mountains and water reflecting off his visor.  Audible clicks as the pilot scans through radio frequencies, receiving nothing but static.  Looks up and sees the moon as it normally does on a summer day.  Looks back down, and we see grassy fields between us and the mountains, a forested area heavily damaged by the mecha's impact.

2.  Pilot touches down, rolls.  Lies there for a while, breathing heavily before removing the helmet.  We see a creature not entirely human, but humanoid.  Feminine.  A narrow triangular shape.  Maybe not narrow... but not wide.  If I say cat shaped, would that work?  Thin lipped, large eyes, bald.  Let me stress, this is not a grey although the features are similar.  She's pretty, but in an alien sort of way, makes you wonder why you are attracted to her when you know you shouldn't be.  Tall, slender build.  Stands... seven feet tall.  Long limbed, but not freakishly so.  Delicate fingers.  AHH!  Elf-like.  She's very elf-like!  That will actually play out nicely...

3.  The rest of this portion is about her surviving on this world.  Creating a shelter, hunting.  Repairing her mecha with the assistance of an energy sphere (as seen in the Mass Effect games); it's an AI computer program.  Also along the lines of Cursor from Automan if that helps.  Bad nights of rainstorms, freezing and shivering, of almost dying.  Not everything is good, need to reflect the bad.  Mix in it the repairs, or recharging the power cells (solar collectors).  Every so often, our alien hears transmissions on the radio, staticy and jagged, but they are apparently not what she's hoping for... she scrambles, activates her weapons, and looks up.

4.  While exploring the area, she comes across an expansive cave, of which she heavily examines and approves of.  It's around this time she comes across what we would call humans.  Not cavemen, no, but not yet 'civilized' either.  Early nomads would probably be best.  They see her as a god, to which she uses to its fullest.  The mecha is moved into the cave, piece by piece / part by part.  They erect statues of her, make images in her, well, in her image.  She mates, has a child.  Years pass, we see the humans grow old and die while she ages slowly.  She has more children.  The seasons change, the terrain changes.  Humans come and go, first villages, then town.  Towns disappear, forests come.  The cave is sealed when more transmissions are received, louder, stronger.  We see our alien standing within the mechanically lit cave staring out as great doors close, rocks falling on the outside to hide the doors, the cave, and her.

...

The next season or story... or should this part be the first... takes place an unknown number of years after the battle.  AND, it takes place in the modern world.  Or modernish.  Not exactly 2014; maybe 1914?  Don't know what era I'm going for.  I was first thinking something steampunky, but in figuring out the scope and scale, it wouldn't seem realistic.  Then again, if we use the modern era, the cost of the upcoming project wouldn't be feasible.

no working title, now

1.  We see a man looking at some trinkets, oddities at a roadside cart, surrounded by other carts, each harking and selling their wares.  He wanders about some more, dressed in dusty clothes, haggling with the vendors in a non-English tongue.  Have the usual discussions about not what he is looking for, the prices are too high.  Some native tugs at the man, tells him he has something that might interest him, and leads him to his stall.  Here he unveils a cracked and dirty glass sphere, with spider webbing inside.  As the man brushes off and cleans the sphere, he peers inside, only to see that the webbing inside is bluish in color.  "I'll take it".

2.  The dusty man's home.  A young boy greets what turns out to be his father at the door, the wife inside.  Talks about his trip, the journey, about how the company / business / venture will continue or proceed better than expectations.  Boy still jumps about, asking repeatedly if the dad got him anything.  As an answer, the man hands the boy a round present; he rips off the paper, exposing the glass sphere.  The spider webbing is clearly blue now, almost luminescent.  The boy turns the sphere, looks at it from various angles and positions, and at times the webbing looks as if it'll form a shape, different shapes pending on which way it's held.  Boy hugs his father and runs upstairs with it.  Within his darkened room, we see that the sphere does in fact seem to glow.  

3.  When the boy goes to sleep, we see the sphere pulse ever so slightly, narrow energy tendrils moving from sphere to the boy's head, softly probing and touching, like one of those static ball generators, but softer.  

4.  As the boy grows, we see him working on school projects, especially the sciences.  He begins to carry his good luck charm around with him; what used to look so big to the child now seems smaller than he remembers.  The sphere is now about the size of a baseball, but the spider webbing is thicker, more solid.  We watch as the boy begins to date, but for some reason the sphere will glow, as if giving its permission or not... as if the sphere was guiding the boy.  

5.  Older now, working in a lab of sorts.  The man sits at his desk, working on a project, when his spere-shaped paperweight begins to glow.  The man looks up, as if controlled, and watches as an intern tour group walks through the labs.  One intern, a woman, has stopped moving and looks up at the man, the pendent around her neck glowing a red color matching the blue's intensity.

6.  Years pass, and we see the now older couple playing with their infant child, a red and blue spider-webbed sphere dangling from his crib mobile.

...

Okay, by now you should see what's happening, and can probably guess as to what's going on. Yes, the alien lady gave birth to alien / human hybrids. Numerous generations pass, the genetic line has become dispersed. The sphere, or spheres, sought out the children of the alien, influencing them, manipulating them, getting them to meet, to unite the alien DNA, to make the genetics stronger. Should there be a genetic dead end, the sphere would seek out the closest individual with the proper code sequence. As the genetics merged, so too did the spheres, until now, the final melding. Crap, only a half hour of work left, better quicken this up.

no working title, the wander years

1. Our child from the last segment from above, hits puberty. Yes, everything happens at puberty. Awards adorn his walls, academic achievements. As he examines the sphere, he begins to see shapes within the webbing. Maps, images, a face. And, the first person to do so, makes a lamp with a recessed light to which he can place the sphere so that the webbing is displayed on the ceiling. A map of a world is seen, but not at all like the globe sitting on the boy's desk. He puzzles over this, jumps, and grabs one of his books, and sees a map of the world as it would have appears millions of years ago. As the boy pours over the book, the ball begins to grow brighter while it loses its solidity. The lamp grows dimmer, the sphere drawing its energy from it.

2. The sphere turns into the drone / AI / cursor from the beginning (duh), images of various events and unknowns flashing on the walls. It chatters in numerous sounds / languages, until it settles on English

**It's here that the whole beginnings part can be played out, or perhaps just break it into segments.

3. Anyway, the sphere tells the boy of the great war, of how a nameless evil was vanquished from the world so that its inhabitants could grow free, but that this was done at a great cost. Usual anime stuff. The boy is the cumulation of many generations of genetic manipulation, to create the one being that could combat the return of the evil, the one being that would be able to utilize the tools and technology of the alien that had crashed here, as that technology would only accept commands from someone whose DNA matches, or closely matches, the person it was designed for.

**Shit, fifteen minutes left**

4. Through advice and manipulation, the sphere teaches the teen, helping him collect resources to journey to Antarctica to open the cave and to gain access to the technology inside. We watch as the boy grows in power and wealth, becoming an industrial giant in the world. We could scatter in some stuff about unusual radio signals, but that they're believed to be pulsars or the such. Nothing to worry about.

5. Antarctica. The now man has enough resources to completely fund an expedition to Antarctica, and to establish a permanent base of operations. Guided by the sphere, the man finds where the cave is, begins the construction of the base. The man, now in his late 50s / early 60s, stands before the mighty doors. He places his hands on the doors, commands them to open, but nothing happens. Confused, the man questions the sphere. "why won't these open?" he demands. "I never said it was to be you", replied the sphere. Camera pans, we see the man's pregnant assistant. Angered, enraged, the man curses and spits, how he was supposed to be the one. He lunges at the woman, who falls backward, stumbles. The man slams her head into the ground over and over, killing her. As the man pants, blood on his hands, we see the sphere drift closer, just over the man. "You were close, but there was one factor missing. We needed a pure, untainted offspring, to raise and teach from the start."

6. The sphere moves over to the woman's abdomen; we watch as the sphere grows as her stomach shrinks. "You are too angry, too lustful for power. You could never do." The sphere moves to the door, reaches it as the man jumps and leaps for the sphere; his fingers make contact, and he disintegrates.

...

Next part tomorrow... time for me to go

Sometimes, when it comes to characters, I like to model them after actors or pre-existing characters from other sources.  For me, it tends to flesh them out, and I can better visualize the scene.

With regards to the above story, after describing the alien, after mentally seeing it, I realized that there is really only one person who I feel captures that look... including the whole attractiveness without really knowing why.  Her name is Rila Fukushima; I've seen her in a few different things, but many of you would probably best remember her from the Wolverine movie as the character Yukio. And yes, I did erase her nipple (don't want to upset the censors!).

Long limbed, slender, triangular face / cat like shape. Perfect match?

Team Punisher

A few months ago... quite a few months ago to be exact... I had the start of an epic Punisher story. Epic in scope, epic in size. I had the premise of what I wanted to do, a rough idea, but I couldn't think of something that would cause the Punisher to do what I had in store for him: to form a team.

Sure, he's had his partners (Microchip comes to mind. He's had his share of team-ups (Spider-Man, Moon Knight. Heck, he's even been part of teams (Thunderbolts, Ultimates) or in a group setting dealing with things bigger than what he could do alone (Shadowland, Civil War, Original Sin). But with what I had in mind, it had to be something that compelled him to form a team, to want to bring others to him for a common goal. And that, well, that just isn't Frank.

Until now.

My original idea was for Frank to come to terms with his humanity, to finally realize that he needs others around him to not only keep him in check, but to allow him to strike more effectively, to truly make his war mean something. Have it so he could see and understand the potential to work in a group, and how much more he could accomplish. But, no matter how I played it out, it just didn't feel right... him apologizing and attempting to be a person. It wasn't the Punisher.

I think for me, even though I had the outline, I had no end goal. No target. Nothing that really justified an army as it were. Who was there in the Marvel Universe (earthly domain) that seriously posed a threat large enough to where Frank would seek out others? Truth is, there isn't one. Thanks to the likes of Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe and his actions in the Civil War storyline, he can be seen as a big hitter once again, someone who the sups would think twice about. Hell, Punisher took out the Avengers (Stark, Spider Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Thor; excellent read, that was!) because they underestimated him... and a year later, he took out the latest version of the Thunderbolts (Red Hulk, Ghost Rider, Venom, Deadpool, Elektra).

I had to look elsewhere, outside the Marvel Universe. Played around with the notion of a Tyranid swarm probing the world, but that wouldn't work... wrong scope, wrong sense of priority. Then there was a SHIELD sponsored recon of a Predator ship, with Frank to pick his own recon team. Good concept, and the support characters I had were perfect, but once against was the wrong scope. Frank may join in massive global threats, but he doesn't lead in those situations; he can't, it's beyond him. He needs something to keep him grounded, something that threatens the common person, to stop the things that the capes just can't be bothered with.

This past Sunday, it came to me.

Suddenly, the reason for establishing an intelligence support staff made sense... Microchip, Stuart Clarke, and Henry Russo. Each of them hackers and technicians extraordinaire. Micro is a wiz with standard civilian stuff and some weaponsmithing; Clarke, former enemy of Iron Man, is a technical genius on par with the caps and supers (heck, he was a super villain after all); and Henry, Jigsaw's son... has hacked into SHIELD more times than is possible to count, aided Frank during the Frankencastle storyline. No system on Earth could stop them.

Team players. Characters who Frank has worked with before. People he can trust to watch his back, to get the job done. People who can take orders. People who can see the scope of things, and see what needs to be done, who can see that this is right. Moon Knight, Wolverine, Agent Venom... these three are at the top of the list. But what of others, like... Solo? Could he be a team player? Nightcrawler? Nomad? Or what of the non-superhero community, those individuals who Frank has worked with before? There's a long line of individuals who fit the bill... Payback, Outlaw, Lady Punisher, and so on... all with training, all with a fire team / military / police force unity.

We have intelligence and technical support. We have potential recruits, or at least those who could offer assistance. We have a strike team. We have an honest to gawd military style platoon comic book, based on a group that can literally take down forces far superior to themselves. But first, they need to be tested. They need a setting where they can do the most good with the least interference. They need a city where, even should they fill, they'd have done some good.

The catalyst, the thing that sets this all into motion? A simple newspaper headline that catches Frank's eye as he walks down the street, or perhaps a television news report. Whatever it is, it physically impacts Frank... his face twists in disgust, rage. Teeth clench, fists ball, knuckles whiten.

...

"I warned him," he thinks. "I warned him, and he let him go anyway."

Frank slams his fists down upon his work bench.

On the wall can be see pictures of oddly familiar characters, villains one and all, each with lines or threads to show connects, with a city map behind them, pins indicating known sightings of those characters.

"He let him go."

Picture passes an image of a smiling clown. Newspaper article with current date beside the image reads "36 presumed dead in latest..."

"No more."

Threads leading, joining. All merging at a central picture. A man dressed in a bat cowl.

"... no more."

I've come to the realization that my thread on dream inspired ideas and this one can probably be merged; I'll have to work on that.

This idea was not dream inspired, just one I consciously thought up. I'm trying to work out the details, kind of creating a movie trailer. I'll eventually post this "trailer" when I got the kinks worked out, but in the meantime, here's the plot. Or the development. The snippet where the rest of the story grows.

The premise of the story is how science says we are all made of star stuff, that because of the air we breath, we all have a part of Hitler inside of us (I read that last part somewhere, can't remember where though). I'm expanding on that notion in that, a long time ago (but in this galaxy), a being was destroyed. Perhaps it was Lucifer, perhaps one of the Watchers from the Book of Enoch, perhaps some other celestial being... but you get the idea.

In my trailer, I have someone free falling through the atmosphere. I can visualize a glare or reflection, as if the person was looking through a visor. Heavy panicked breathing, head turning about. Looking up, you see vastly growing dots in pursuit.

Regardless of the being, there is a fall. A Great Fall. At some point before impacting with the ground, the being explodes, an aerial detonation if you will, for maximum exposure. Explosion would be the wrong word, as this would be more of an atomization. The being is breaking apart into dust particles (and I am assuming into things far smaller), and you can see this stuff trailing behind the being, only to be carried away by the wind.

And then... nothing. The being ceases to be, disintegrated, all the bits blown away into the air.

Over a vast distance, we see particles landing on things: a plant leaf, on water, animals... whatever they land on, you see the piece being absorbed into whatever it touched.

From this point, we rapidly approach the modern age. In this process, we see animals eating contaminated plants and water, contaminated people creating offspring, people eating animals and plants and water, and and and... with each generation, with every consumption, particles are reunited, join, collect. As the collections grow bigger, so does its influence: people join with other people they normally wouldn't... "love at first sight"; one night stands that started at a bar, so those collections could merge with the child being produced. Compulsions of wanting to try something new, just so those collections can unite and be passed to the next generation. These particles are united, reforming.

And then, the last two batches or collections meet. A child is born, every single particle infused into this being.

Think of it as a family tree, or the reverse of genetic distribution. Everything is leading to the creation of this one person, who itself would be the rebirth of the being who disintegrated so long ago.

Here then is where I am stuck. I have what I want, but I can't think of a story to go with it.

Wow dude...sigh....sorry.

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It is kinda funny though, you have the fall, the pieces, the fast forward to modern times. Yeah, sorry again.

Dark Skies

So I was thinking of the End Times and how every religion has one, and how they describe a darkness falling upon the lands and the bitter cold or brutality, how darkness is spreading / how the light is being extinguished.

Imagine if you will one of two intros... I haven't decided which one yet. Astronomers either A) detect a supernova, one that has burst in the color of blue, in the "far reaches of space", or B) astronomers have detected an unusual area of space devoid of stars... there is nothingness there.

Whichever intro is chosen, it is discovered that it is expanding. If the supernova route is picked, the explosion expands in a ring shape, or rather something hollow; wherever the blue touches, or rather, wherever the blue has been, there is now nothing... the stars have been extinguished, and the supernova is not stopping or dimming or anything you would expect a supernova to do. If the nothingness route is chosen, same thing, except this time you can't see it spread, you can only watch as the stars not dim, but rather just blink out of existence.

Astronomers and scientists observe this for several years, noting that the stars are being extinguished and then calculating how quickly this is spreading. Based on the intro, either people are aware of the situation (supernova) or not... at least, not until the disappearing stars begin in an area of space visible to the human eye (or amateur astronomers).

Predictions are made, the End Times are near, blah blah blah. All the while scientists continue to observe the spreading darkness. Wars break out as people and nations begin to panic, throwing the Earth into a 100 year conflict (maybe longer, who knows). Eventually, when the dust settles, a unification process begins, and humanity moves forward technologically by leaps and bounds.

It is discovered that, within the darkened area, there are a few stars still burning, though far apart from each other. Advanced technology reveal that these areas are inhabited. Some stars before the oncoming darkness appear to be dimming as well, showing that great spheres are being constructed around them... again, advanced life. All these areas are not many in any sense of the world, probably less than 10. Humanity begins the construction of their own sphere, clearing the solar systems of comets, asteroids, moons, and even the planets.

After so many years, it is learned that this darkness is a form of life (to lift something from Marvel comics, an Annihilation Wave). A two-pronged approach begins: the sphere continues to be built, while a massive armada is constructed. Communication is established with the stars within the darkness and those that are dimming. More advances in technology as humanity and aliens begin to unite to face against this wave.

...

As you can see, this isn't so much a stand alone story. There's plenty of material here for any number of tales. Plus... maybe... gaming potential?

story from a dream

Probably brought on by current news, but still, an interesting concept, conceived from within a dream: why aren't there movies based on post apocalyptic events? Yes, there's The Road, but I'm talking about afterwards. The recovery, how life changed twenty years after said event. When humanity recovers, is back on its feet. I'm talking about the novel World War Z, where there were interviews with the survivors, recounting on what happened, what they were doing.

In this dream...

A small island, long ignored, easily seen from the shore of the mainland. It very well could have been a manmade island, one of those breakwater types, as the island didn't have a gradual slope into the water or waterbed, but rather the shore was coated/built with rocks and cinder blocks. Could be natural beach sand there, and this was merely an erosion measure, but regardless, it was impossible to walk or crawl up. The island, as seen from the mainland, is heavily wooded. It isn't a big island, maybe five or ten acres.

Turns out, there's an elderly couple living on that island. They've been living there for an unknown number of years; decades even. Ever since the {event} from {year}. The dream had it as a zombie apocalypse, and marked at twenty years ago, but I could see things stretched out a bit further. They had cleared the center of the island for small crops; the man's been fishing along the side of the island away from the mainland so as not to draw attention; very much a little house on the prairie lifestyle.

(the dream had a concrete structure on the island, surrounded by grassy field, surrounded by heavy woods; there was even a really thick impassable hedge between woods and field, but all that seems rather convenient)

The story starts off with a news broadcast, where the reporter is standing on the mainland, describing the island (camera zooms on the island) and the secrets it has been harboring for all these years. "Meet {names}, survivors of the {event}, who have been living on this island, in isolation, for {number} years."

And that is the story, the news interview. Maybe it's like a 20/20 episode. How the couple came to the island, the struggles they faced, the life they built. How they didn't know that the event was over, that they thought they were alone.