Jumping on an open tag by @tc-doherty to share the original base ideas for my WIPs!! (I'll get back to you someday, I promise.)
All the Queen's Horses: Started with me coming up with Fallon's character, and then deciding that I wanted to write a romance-focused story that would actually appeal to me.
Call of Shadows: Came to me one weekend while at my family's cottage. I don't remember the exact point of inspiration, but I've had a long-standing love of thief characters and also of "dark" or shadow magic, so that probably was the starting point.
High Fantasy WIP: Really just me thinking "I want to write the dnd-inspired fantasy novel of my dreams". I introduced its vibes as "Six of Crows meets D&D", and that is the eventual goal, even though the story doesn't even really have much of a plot or characters yet. The Narrator specifically was inspired by the Bartimaeus Trilogy and the Nevernight Chronicles.
Runaway Prince WIP: No idea where it came from, but the base idea was just "prince runs away, followed by his incredibly devoted bodyguard and accidentally ends up on a pirate ship". Looking back on it, the vibes for the Prince/Bodyguard relationship was probably indirectly inspired by Locke and Jean from The Lies of Locke Lamora.
Political Fantasy WIP: Also don't know where this one came from, tbh. But political scheming with a side of romance is the goal! (I think I just really wanted to write scheming, hahaha.)
Supernatural Roadtrip WIP: I was going back through the mess of my computer's hard drive and came across these picrews, and things spiraled from there.
Warforged WIP: A dnd character concept that I will probably never get to write. Weirdly has pretty strong Murderbot Diaries vibes for having originated before I even knew what Murderbot was.
Divinity WIP: Me finishing Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and thinking about how fucked it is that my character is basically an immortal angel now, when all her (extremely short-lived, even for a mortal) partner wanted was to live a normal life. (Also the game's secret ending where your character can essentially become a god.)
Tagging @space-writes @akindofmagictoo and @transmasc-wizard bc I'm curious about your starting points, but also making this an open tag!
From the game I just reblogged, for one of your original WIPs:
(16) what sparked [project]? what was the original premise or jumping-off point, and do you have any records of the first notes from its creation?
OOOH, HI TC!!! Thank you for forcing me to think about one of my original WIPs!! It's been a very long time since I've done that. I'm going to talk about a WIP that I never formally introduced (even though I have an intro post in my drafts), which is Divinity WIP.
The premise is pretty much: What if someone became a god without wanting to, and it was killing them (both literally and figuratively), and someone who loved them more than anything else in the world had to watch that happen?
The original inspirations for this WIP were really just a combination of things that I happened to come across close together.
The first of those things was me finishing my first playthrough of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. In that game, there's a mechanic called "mythic paths" where you essentially are slowly transforming into and gaining the power of some kind of supernatural entity. My first character took the angel path, and by the end of the game she had wings and a halo, and was invited to heaven. She chose to stay on Golarion for a while, but it was extra interesting to think about her life post-game, because during the game she literally got married to a guy whose species has an extremely short lifespan compared to even just normal humans. And here she is, now practically immortal, and destined to leave Golarion long after he's gone to live in heaven. (Also, an important part of the inspiration is the fact that your character does not truly have a choice in this. They were modified -- created, even -- without their consent.)
I also was inspired by some details from Divinity: Original Sin 2, with regards to your character being able to become the divine at the end of the game.
However, the other key jumping off point was this post, which I saw the same week I finished PWotR.
In terms of actual character relationships, I was thinking a lot about Frodo and Sam from LotR, particularly Sam's absolutely unwavering devotion and dedication, and how (in my mind) their relationship reads as very queerplatonic.
This is what ended up being in the Themes & Tropes section for the intro post I never posted for the WIP:
(The line that truly haunts me about this is "immortality as a form of death", which is a tag that @daisywords left on a post I made back when I first got the idea.)
Also, these two lines from the unpublished intro post, which are kind of the taglines for the two main characters.
So yeah, that's the gist of it. It's very much a tragedy story in many ways.
Unfortunately none of the characters have names and I don't even have a plot, just a vague concept. So probably not going to be making any progress on this anytime soon. But that's okay. It will be here waiting for when I'm ready for it. :')
hello haply sts! is there a character dynamic you've really been thinking about lately? why?
HELLO!!! Thanks for the ask!
I mean, there's dozens of character dynamics I've been thinking about, but mostly for my dnd characters.
However, one that I've been playing with in my mind for a while is the two main characters from divinity wip. The protagonist is a (trans) woman who is slowly being turned into a god against her will, complete with divine powers that are destroying her (mortal) body.
The deuteragonist is her best friend and qpr partner who is hopelessly devoted to her. They basically end up becoming her first paladin, but it begs the question "is there any future for a mortal who loves a god?"
The woman-who-is-becoming-a-god wants to tell her friend to leave, so they don't have to see her losing her humanity, slowly dying in all the ways that matter. But she also is so afraid of being alone that she can't bring herself to ask. And it wouldn't matter anyways, bc her friend would never leave her, not in heaven or hell or anywhere in between. And yes, this is a tragedy, so... we'll see how that ends up for them. :)) (god/paladin, god/martyr tragic (platonic) love story anyone?)
The dynamics that really fuck me up though are my boy Rook and his two mentors never ever fails to fuck me up. Also Carrion and his mentor, and one of his party members.
[putting this under the cut bc as always when I talk about these two it got ridiculously long.]
Rook's first mentor, Zara, was the first person to ever truly be kind to him. She was the captain of the pirate ship he sailed on for 6 years. Because of how important she was to him, both as a figure of authority and as a mentor, and also just as a good influence in his life, Rook ended up kind of idolizing her. And after being trapped aboard the Sea Snake for two years, a lot of mental escapism and maladaptive daydreaming made that idolization even stronger. So at this point she's practically a god in his eyes, and he would forgive her for anything. He gets to see her again in a few sessions for the first time in 3 years, and I'm not kidding when I say that this is going to be the most important session I will ever play as him, I think. He never got to say goodbye to her the first time, and she's been feeling guilty as fuck over him getting captured, but she never came to rescue him. oh it's gonna be so good. I can't imagine that his idolization and his willingness to forgive her for anything and do anything for her will help with the guilt she's feeling...
And then there's Sigmar, Rook's second mentor, who he met during the campaign. He taught Rook some fun combat moves, and promised to help Rook defeat Captain Wolf (the vengeful pirate captain who was kidnapped him twice now). Sigmar told the party bard while Rook was sleeping that if he had been in Zara's position, he would have killed Captain Wolf and burned her ship to the ground to get Rook back, or died trying. He also was helping Rook hide his demon curse from the party. HOWEVER, he turned out to actually be a corpse being controlled and spoken through by the BBEG of the whole campaign, and the party ripped said corpse to pieces in front of Rook's eyes. Oh, and the wizard had known the whole time and just let Rook continue to get closer to this man. (His reasoning was "if he's obsessed with Rook, that means his people can't be hurting us.")
And the most insane part is that he really truly did love Rook, as much as he's capable of that. He ignored his own daughter in favor of Rook, and when Rook searched his house after we killed his controlled body, he found a book where Sigmar had been taking notes on how to be a mentor to him, using a fictional character as a guide. And now someday Rook is going to have to face him again, this time in his real body, and they're going to have to hurt each other, but both of them are going to have a hard time doing it, and it just makes me-- AGH.
The rest of the party didn't like him in or out of character, but to me out of character he was everything I could ever want handed to me on a silver platter even before I knew he was actually a literal war criminal. (I still love him, though. It's kind of a problem, actually.)
My shifter barbarian, Carrion, also has some crazy character dynamics going on. He used to be a paladin, and while he was in the Order, he had a mentor and kinda-sorta father figure named Theodore. However, bc of Carrion's monstrous transformations as the result of coming into contact with Delirium (essentially super radioactive magic crystals), the paladins chained Carrion up and left him behind. The last thing Theodore said to him was "Soon you'll be nothing but Carrion" and that's how he got his name, bc he survived and he plans to kill Theodore and tell him that "I may be Carrion, but I am not nothing."
BUT the sad part is that Theodore was so regretful and sad and fucked up over leaving Carrion behind, over failing him, that he literally lost his divine magic for years. And I'm just in agony waiting for when Carrion sees him again, because Theodore doesn't even know that the boy he knew as Reverence is still alive, let alone that he's planning on killing him.
Also, there's the party's warlock, Valeska, who completely and utterly disarmed Carrion by reacting with nothing but pure and naked curiosity upon finding out about his corruption and transformations. No fear, disgust, not even pity. And at the end of the first session, she asked if he was afraid of his transformations, and he said no, he's more afraid of other people's reactions to his transformations. And she said "I think you're lying. Why else would you call yourself a monster?" and Carrion hesitated and then said "Because no one has ever called me anything different." She didn't respond right away so he panicked and thought he had said to much so he was like "go to sleep" and then Valeska said "Carrion?" and he was like "What do you want, Valeska?" and she said "Nothing. Just saying your name. See? I called you something other than a monster."
WHEN I TELL YOU I SOBBED... The irony is, ofc, the backstory behind his name, but she didn't know it in or out of character, and he wouldn't go by the name if he hadn't found some measure of power in it. But holy SHIT, this whole man's world has been unbalanced. And when he finds out the truth about Theodore... it's going to fall apart completely. And I can't fucking wait.
ugh, I just came across my unfinished intro for Divinity WIP (an idea I had and then shortly abandoned back in January) in my drafts, and man, I was cooking so hard with that WIP concept. I'd love to get back to it someday. Sadly I can't even share the intro, because there's too many unfilled blanks. (Character names, mainly. Literally no one has a name. Also I have no idea what the fuck the plot is for this story. It's vibes only around here.)
But like, look at this shit!!
Can you become a god and retain your humanity?
(about the protagonist, a trans woman who receives divine power)
Is there any future for a mortal who loves a god?
(about her best friend/qpr partner (nb), her ever-loyal guard dog)
Themes & Tropes: platonic love | best friends who would do anything for each other | devotion as a form of love/worship | immortality as a form of death | transformation | "don't go where i can't follow" | divinity vs humanity | loyalty as a fatal flaw | self-sacrifice as self-destruction
(thanks again to @daisywords for the phrase ''immortality as a form of death'' which will be burned into my brain for the rest of my life.)
Seriously, this wip idea is so fucking cool, and I can't wait to get back to it someday.
So everyone's heard of "god loves you, but not enough to save you", right? I propose a new version: "god loves you too much to save you". The god is too selfish to let you go. They'd rather keep you trapped somewhere or doom you than lose you. They will do anything in their godly power to keep you with them. And you know what? Maybe you're okay with that. Maybe you begged them not to leave you behind when they ascended. Or maybe you're begging them now to just please, let me go, let me die, let me leave. And god says no, I love you, I can't live without you.
some uhh... concept picrews for the MC of my new WIP under the cut
just a little bit of the progression of her transformation.
I wish there was an option for a nose with the cut like that that was slightly wider? and I'm kind of wishing I had given her slightly bigger lips. She is Black (or potentially mixed-race, I'm still thinking).
@daisywords said "Immortality as a type of death" in her tags on my post about Divinity WIP, and that has been burned into my mind ever since. That phrase is definitely going on the themes list for this project whenever I post the wip intro.
