#book plot concepts

[triggerthreestrikes]

NEW BOOK IDEA BASED OFF OF REAL EVENTS, Project name “letters across time.” look up “bbc micro LW letters.”

so you’ve got this protagonist who has a computer right? Everyday Joe Schmoe/Plane Jane? Well one day on their computer they leave a blank word document open while they leave/got to bed, and when they get back there’s this poem written on the document. Now when they examine their house to make sure no one has broken in, (they find nothing) they examine the poem and show it to. A history buff friend, who finds out it’s written in accurate sixteenth century English. Thinking this is odd, and wondering if they could get another letter or poem, they write out questions for the mystery poem writer, asking what year it is for them, what their life is like, who’s the current leader of the country, etc. and they leave the computer alone before they go to bed. When they check the computer again they find the letter has been replaced with a response, all answers to the questions are historically accurate and the writer is extremely confused about how a letter from the supposed distant future found its way to them. The longer the two correspond the more research is done using the responses. Near the house of the protagonist they find buried material matching that which the correspondent says their home is made of. Then when the person from the past (hensforth will be rknown as the “pastagonist”) asks about the protagonist’s time, they’re confused, because their friend says it’s the year 2109? That’s when they get a new letter from said future individual.

The story could go anywhere by this point, but it’s such a cool concept I had to share!

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Outdrawn

f/f contemporary romance

two cartoonist who’ve been rivals since uni, and now have competing webcomics online, have to work together on the relaunch of a cult classic at the comic press they both work at

they both struggle with art-related physical and mental health issues, and complicated families

[honeycreammilkshake]

sci-fi au where sukuna is some kind of eldritch horror that evolved to devour worlds, spreading in the form of spores to create chaos and eat everything in his path. all of his spores are a part of him and are controlled by him, but one of the spores gets cut off from the rest and evolves on its own. when it's found by the sorcerers warring with sukuna, it's taken and injected into the body of the only human who's ever survived the devouring of his world and makes him a vessel capable of "cleansing" all the other spores and storing the entirety of sukuna within himself.

raised to hunt down and consume the parts of sukuna that are spread out across the universe, the half-breed yuuji is spawned again and again over thousands of years, his sole purpose to devour the whole of sukuna. but when he finally confronts the monster himself and yuuji is forced to take sukuna inside of him, he learns he's fated to keep sukuna locked away in his body for all of eternity as sukuna still has spores hidden away that the sorcerers and yuuji cannot find.

overtime, as each new respawned version of yuuji is kept isolated by a clan of sorcerers who must constantly keep him "cleansed," yuuji grows more and more desperate to break free and create a life for himself. though he can keep sukuna controlled and subdued inside of him, the cursed monster is slowly gaining more power over the years and rising to the surface. the only way to fully destroy him is to escape the sorcerers and force sukuna to take him to every single concealed spore left and kill them all.

when yuuji runs away with sukuna inside of him, he's hunted down by both the sorcerers and sukuna's allies, forced on a journey alone with only sukuna to keep him company. but as they travel together, yuuji finds his hatred for sukuna growing into something more like pity or even empathy, as the monster has never experienced anything other than killing and feeding, has never known to do anything but destroy, just like yuuji was raised to do.

the more yuuji tries to understand the unknowable horror inside of him and the closer their souls get, yuuji wonders if he actually wants to kill sukuna after all. yuuji has been alone his entire life and maybe that's the single reason why he can't bring himself to kill the only thing that has ever been so close to him for thousands of years. even the thought of living without sukuna's mocking voice in his head, being surrounded by strangers who don't understand just how deep yuuji's abnormality and resentment can go, makes yuuji question his feelings for sukuna.

it's clear that sukuna has ruined yuuji's life and billions of others', and while the monster may be the very antithesis of life, the devourer of worlds, yuuji can't help feeling that all life has value, even sukuna's. even if yuuji cannot change sukuna's inherent nature, isn't there still a way they can coexist?

[gracebethartacc]

soooo I had a lore idea earlier that ties into the rewrite really well,,,,,,

Poor unfortunate souls am I right :)

[netmors]

STAR WARS: Eleventh Fleet AU

In addition to the previous post… …little about the eternally bombing imperial-chissian marshmallow with a great love for cape.

If in the case of Vanto and Faro I wanted to convey their “similarity” to each other, then Ronan immediately introduced himself as a typical blond with blue eyes. A sharp contrast, so to speak :3

In the design of his images, I wanted to make a transition and separation from the “look” of his boss, whom he almost idolized and copied - from the cape to the hairstyle and manners, into a completely independent personality. Forged by ice… Literally.

However, even Ba'kif did not knock out his endless, like the galaxy itself, love for capes. And then all chiss from the Universal Analysis Group began to sport cloaks when Ronan took the helm.

In general, Brierly is quite an interesting character. Timothy Zan in Treason created an extremely colorful assistant to Krennic.

But more unexpected was Thrawn's decision to send the colonel along with Ar'alani and Eli to the Ascendency. Of course, perhaps the Grand Admiral hoped to create a kind of “triumvirate”: Vanto - make part of the Chiss Domination and gain an ally in his homeland who would serve the entire state and fleet, just like he once did; Faro - promote to the top positions in the Empire and acquire a reliable ally in the person of his protégé, loyal to him; Plus, both Eli and Karyn were his close people, whom he trusted with a lot. …but Ronan… is like a ticking time bomb. It will “explode”, but where is unclear…

Maybe Thrawn wanted to get a “bridge” between the two states (it’s definitely unlikely - Palpi definitely didn’t even consider the option of “allies”), or he saw in the former employee of the Department of Advanced Weapons Research something hidden even from Ronan himself.

Eli and Karyn saw this very “hidden” thing many years later, but Ronan will never admit “this” even to himself… Unless he casts a proud glance at the Chiss version of the TIE/D “Defender”. Or during the creation of an “almost analogue” of bacta. Or when making “hot chocolate”, which temporarily relieves eternal stress. Or, or, or…

…Or proudly accepting a new name - Stybla'ro'nan.

[puhpandas]

as someone who isnt super excited for sotm for certain reasons I am really glad that like. it's clear that since ruin theyve been setting up for carnival and sotm IS carnival. so now that carnival is finally coming out, afterwards theyll be moving on to other plotlines since the main villain stuff is sorted out

I'm just rlly happy to finally see a clear direction for how the story is gonna be playing out with like "okay these games were leading up to this so after this will be open possibilites" instead of like. absolutely no info about each upcoming game and being left guessing before it releases and just having to wait and see what's in it and if anything you're looking forward to will be in it

it feels like they have a plan and a solid direction for what they're trying to do and after carnival releases thatll be all that buildup coming to fruition. & we already know from the Scott interview that theres another release 'beyond sotm' that's 'super exciting' so maybe thatll be focusing on another big currently untouched (which is basically all of them) plotline, or even the big campaign game that dawko has been calling security breach 2

[walrus150915]

I have no damn words guys

WHAT IS THIS. WHY. WHY

(from Nimona the concept book!)

[goldenappledelicious]

Man, Villain or Morally Grey Glinda is SO fun to me as a concept but they always give her such lame or weirdly heterosexual motivations?? Why are y’all doing my girl like this? 😭

How is the “Glinda orchestrated events to become the uncontested ruler of Oz” theory for the movie better than most actual villain Glinda depictions?

[erenfox]

ngl did we actually know ANYTHING about ANYONE from the apollo's cabin before tlo?

in tlo too they had a comparatively smaller role compared to all the other cabins

will solace was mentioned the first time in that book

and then man goes on to have his own book

[kissycat]

The entire time while reading that published sherlock fanfiction I was thinking of the devil's sacrament post because why do I know it's a sherlock fanfiction without having seen the original fanfiction. What was I doing at the devils sacrament. Well, as you can guess, I was reading sherlock fanfiction

[madwoman14]

the pjo show has me thinking about rick riordan's other series that was another piece of formative media: 39 clues. now that would be a good tv show adaptation.

[cerulean-renegade]

This is one of the funniest sentences on the tardis wiki. the 90's doctor who books were something else

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Lord of the Empty Isles

sci-fi/fantasy

set on a supposedly utopian planet recovering from a climate crisis, where bonds between people are able to be seen and manipulated (by some people)

follows a young man whose brother was cursed and killed by an infamous outlaw 5 years ago, and he’s finally able to curse him back - but it rebounds, as he’s somehow fatebound to the outlaw

to find a cure and save them both they have to team up, and he quickly finds out that the resources the outlaw is stealing go to the thousands of people neglected on prison planets, and he has to go against what he thought was right to help them

no romance, aroace MC, focus on platonic relationships

arc from netgalley, out june 6

[blood-orange-juice]

Pushing my "Childe is inspired by Uther Doul" agenda.

I wrote about how everything that he does contains a contradiction and we discussed with Cricket how Canotila's quest implies that the Abyss might not be just a place with monsters and dead forgotten gods, but rather a place where things randomly flicker in and out of existence or change to random other things.

And a huge part of my fascination with Childe is how three years after the start of the story I still can't figure him out. Human psyche doesn't bend at this angles, his combination of traits is not supposed to exist in one person (nor it can be imitated).

Yet, somehow it doesn't feel like ooc or bad writing, I have a very clear sense of what would be childelike and unchildelike, it just doesn't feel like anything that can exist inside a human brain, unless I resort to a very weird theory.

*

The theory.

China Mieville's "The Scar" has a concept called "possibility mining", certain places and certain magic/technology being able to conjure all the possible versions of a person or an object at once. It can be navigated to some extent.

There's a character called Uther Doul, a warrior-scholar, the pirate city rulers' bodyguard and overall a charming fellow. He's consistently described as someone changing the direction of his actions too quickly and unpredictably or having traits that shouldn't coexist in one person.

(he also wears grey, is proficient in most kinds of weapons and is generally polite and soft spoken. do you see my vision?)

First meeting:

  “Surrender,” he said quietly to the man before him, who looked up in terror and sobbed, fumbled idiotically for his knife.    The grey-clad man spun instantly in the air, his arms and legs bent. He twirled as if he were dancing and stamped out quickly, the bottom of his foot slamming into the fallen man’s face and smashing him back. The sailor sprawled, bleeding, unconscious or dead. As the man in grey landed he was instantly still. It was as if he had not moved.

A fight at a city arena (mostly quoting this for the reaction of other people to him):

It was only when the frenzy spread to her own boat that she realized it was a word. “Doul.” It came from all around her. “Doul, Doul, Doul.” A name. “What are they saying?” she hissed to Silas. “They’re calling for someone,” he said, his eyes scanning the surrounds. “They want a display. They’re demanding a fight from Uther Doul.” He gave her a quick, cold smile. “You’ll recognize him,” he said. “You’ll know him when you see him.” [...] Uther Doul did not seem to live in the same time as anyone else. He seemed like some visitor to a world much more gross and sluggish than his own. Despite the bulk of his body, he moved with such speed that even gravity seemed to operate more quickly for him.

The heroine contemplating after (I don't think need to comment):

They left and walked the winding nightlit pathways of Thee-And-Thine toward Shaddler, and Garwater and the Chromolith. Neither spoke. At the end of Doul’s fight, Bellis had seen something that had brought her up short and made her afraid. As he had turned, his hands clawed, his chest taut and heaving, she had seen his face. It was stretched tight, every muscle straining, into a glare of feral savagery unlike anything she had ever seen on a human being. Then a second later, with his bout won, he had turned to acknowledge the crowd and had looked once more like a contemplative priest. Bellis could imagine some fatuous warrior code, some mysticism that abstracted the violence of combat and allowed one to fight like a holy man. And equally she could imagine tapping into savagery, letting atavistic viciousness take over in a berserker fugue. But Doul’s combination stunned her. She thought of it later, as she lay in her bed, listening to light rain. He had readied and recovered himself like a monk, fought like a machine, and seemed to feel it like a predatory beast. That tension frightened her, much more than the combat skills he had shown. Those could be learned.

Uther explaining lore:

   Uther quoted something like a singer. “ ‘We have scarred this mild world with prospects, wounded it massively, broken it, made our mark on its most remote land and stretching for thousands of leagues across its sea. And what we break we may reshape, and that which fails might still succeed. We have found rich deposits of chance, and we will dig them out.’    “They meant all that literally,” he said. “It wasn’t an abstract crow of triumph. They had scarred, they had broken the world. And, in doing so, they set free forces that they were able to tap. Forces that allowed them to reshape things, to fail and succeed simultaneously-because they mined for possibilities. A cataclysm like that, shattering a world, the rupture left behind: it opens up a rich seam of potentialities.    “And they knew how to pick at the might-have-beens and pull out the best of them, use them to shape the world. For every action, there’s an infinity of outcomes. Countless trillions are possible, many milliards are likely, millions might be considered probable, several occur as possibilities to us as observers-and one comes true.    “But the Ghosthead knew how to tap some of those that might have been. To give them a kind of life. To use them, to push them into the reality that in its very existence denied theirs, which is defined by what happened and by the denial of what did not. Tapped by possibility machines, outcomes that didn’t quite make it to actuality were boosted, and made real.

Fun detail: he also wields what's called a "possible sword", it takes the shape currently preferred by the owner.

If I recall that correctly, it's never actually stated explicitly or explained why does Uther have such a weird combination of traits and fans argue a lot about which side was real.

I think all of them were. He just switched constantly between all the different versions of himself. And I think so does Childe. Not just in "he compartmentalizes" way (although that probably too) but in reality-shifting way.

I also think that's the real reason why Childe wasn't in Sumeru. His thought process itself is probably a massive spoiler. Also Nahida would have probably speedrun a corruption arc with a pace inconceivable both to King Deshret and Rukkhadevata if she tried to peek into his head.

*

It gets weirder and even more fun when you see the drops from the 4.2 boss, but I'll wait for the patch to drop to draw parallels. For now I'll just say that it involves a whale and a music instrument.

[toxooz]

does kari have a hoard? also, if she did, what would it be?

thats her whole deal is she hoards anything PINK thats why she's the way she is the DNA ingrained Dragon Obsession that's considered a hoard lolol i like to think she even had a 'hating pink' phase before she realized that her Hoard was pink things and had a small ohno phase where she knew but still tried to deny it and even tried different things to hoard before she just accepted that her dragon brain simply Wants Pink it doesn't matter how redundant it is wrappers plastic anything that would usually be thrown away if its pink she simply must keep it

she tries to stick them in scrapbooks at least to keep them together but alas the books build up lmfao but at least they're organized by color hue, saturation, texture ect. however she can organize and have an excuse to ogle and touch pink things sksksk she'll dig through the scrapbooks and look at them over and over again for up to hours some days especially if shes struggling with things she will tinker with her collection a lot more 🌸 speaking of dragon hoards Mangule's hoard is skateboards (which reflects the fact that she may be Ollie's foil bc he has an absolute assload of boards as well) BUT the main way she finds herself collecting skateboards is by taking the skateboards of those she kills, so her 'hoard room' is just a big mass of ghost boards that she digs about in to look at and i feel like rarely if she really likes the way a skateboard looks she may solely kill someone JUST for their board bc at this point her mindset is the notion of having a board from someone she killed makes it all the more valuable so her hoard is pretty eerie if your in that room 🤫

[lightineventide]

Recently, I've been falling into the Avantasia rabbit hole again... And so, listening to The Scarecrow reminded me that I can try to find an answer to my biggest question related to it here. I've been very curious for a long time, what's exactly the meaning of the song Cry Just a Little? All my knowledge about the story comes from the CD booklet - everything else is my observations and conclusions. But hell, this song really bugs me a lot... Does anyone have some piece of official information/personal theory about this song in particular?

The way I see it, on one hand, the protagonist is trying to convince himself that his love will regret turning him down - that's part of him trying to feel better, a continuation of Devil of Belfry's theme, a product of arrogance so to speak. On the other hand, I feel like he just wishes to believe it to be true as a proof that someone can still care about him, which would mean that this "Can't she see what I am going through / Cry just a little for me / Oh, girl, a little for me" is another expression of his desire to feel accepted and loved. Just like in Carry Me Over - an innocent wish combined with the bonuses of a twisted mind. But then what's Bob Catley's part supposed to be and mean? I am confused...