#orphaned ideas

[avoiceofnerat]

I have another idea I’ll never make into a story, so I’ll drop it here and hope somebody will pick it up.

So, love potions. How about a twist?

Their new client, pretty and seemingly nice girl about the dead boys’ age, gives them complicated, if not dangerous, case. They spend quite a lot of time on it, enough to get to know her a bit, and it seems like at some point Charles develops a crash on her. It doesn’t trigger any alarms, it looks normal: a bit of flirting from the get-to, a few weeks during the case to connect even more, and then, after the case is wrapped up, they just… continue to see each other. 

Charles behaves, well, normally. He doesn’t hide that he’s enamoured with her, but at the same time he is trying his best to be gentle and considerate with Edwin. 

And Edwin — hurts. He can’t be a total bitch about the girl, because this time Charles is oh so aware of his feelings and is actively trying to spare Edwin any hurt. Failing at it, but not for the lack of trying. So Edwin straps up for a rough journey and minimises occurrences when he needs to interact with the girl. Cherishes the times when there’s only he and Charles, and occasionally Crystal.

It goes on for a few months.

The thing is, the love potion the girl uses is of extremely high quality. It doesn’t change the target’s personality, it doesn’t make them stupid or inconsiderate. It just adds an emotion, a feeling. So Charles is still Charles in all the things that matter, it’s just that now he loves this new girl. Or, rather, he is under the impression that the feelings for this girl are his own.

They’re not.

And of course it’s Crystal who catches the whiff of something being not right. And, well, the thing is Crystal does like the girl. She is nice and kind, and Charles is perfectly happy dating her. So it’s not like she is trying to undermine their relationship or some shit.

It’s just.

They go somewhere together (she, Charles and the girl. Edwin skips), a day trip to an adventure park or maybe a music festival, and the trip is so much fun, she’d have absolutely loved it.

Except.

Charles may be behaving as usual with Crystal and with Edwin, with anybody, really. 

But with the girl he is behaving as anybody but Charles Crystal knows and loves.

Crystal feels like a whole trip is some kind of fucked up joy ride through an uncanny valley. She doesn’t pick up this at first, but after few hours the details pile up. One moment Charles bickers with her and everything is fine, but then he turns to the girl and everything is wrong: his smile isn’t right, his words are a bit off, even his mannerisms are not really his. And then he tells some joke and turns back to her, and winks, and it’s their Charles again.

The worst part? She cannot put her finger on what is wrong.

After the trip Charles goes with the girl wherever, Crystal goes straight to Edwin.

Could you imagine the emotions of all participating parties not only during, but also after the scheme is resolved for good?

Feelings of guilt, hurt, but also the release from whatever was going on? Priceless.

[orphanedideas]

Idea for Horror Film

Our protagonist is Paul, a young man who has recently moved to a new city where he doesn't know anybody. He’s feeling quit lonely and sad, but he likes to go to the city, sit in coffee shops writing and listening to music. Eventually Paul meets some nice people and they ask if he wants to go see some music. He goes along with them and it turns out they're part of a Pentecostal Christian church. This is not what he had in mind, but he humors them because they seem nice and he doesn’t want to be rude. 

As the Pentecostal event ramps up Paul starts to get into it. The music is lively, the people seem happy, the preacher is saying stuff about love and community that makes sense to Paul. When the preacher asks if there’s anyone present who has not given their life to Jesus Paul puts his hand up (along with numerous other people scattered through the crowd). A little later in the service the Preacher does an altar call, inviting people to come up the front and give themselves to the Lord. Paul is feeling a bit too shy, so he doesn’t go up immediately and things start to get weird. There's laying on of hands, people are shaking and falling, speaking in tongues - the usual Pentecostal stuff. 

Paul is starting to feel a bit freaked out now. He decides to try and lay low. He can't really sit down without drawing attention to himself, so he's sort of shrinking back. The service keeps going, music is ramping up, the people are dancing, etc. The preacher repeats the altar call several more times. Eventually he says, "I can still feel that someone in this house hasn't given themselves over to the Lord". His eyes search the crowd until finally he spots Paul. The Preacher points directly at Paul and invites him to come up the front. Things go quiet as the crowd waits for him to answer the call. Paul nervously starts to make his way out of his seat into the aisle. In the aisle he takes a step or two toward the front before turning and sprinting out of the building. 

From that point in the movie, beginning with his rapid exit of the building, Paul is pursued by Christians. They seem manic and totally unconcerned for their own safety, but otherwise still human. They claim to want to bring him to the Lord, though whether as a convert or a ritual sacrifice isn’t clear. At no point in the movie do any of the Christians try to hurt him or do anything worse than restrain him. We don't see them consciously choose to hurt anyone else either (though they may accidentally endanger other people, for example by disrupting traffic). Paul, on the other hand, is not afraid to resort to violence in order to escape the Christians. They are scaring the shit out of him. At times they resemble a smiling zombie horde.

There could be a scene where Paul tries to get help from the police. They sound skeptical at first, but ultimately he persuades them to drive him to safety. Once they’ve put him in their car they take him back to the Christians instead. Paul manages to escape the police car, but ultimately the Christians catch him and drag him back to the building where the service is being held.

The last shot of the movie is Paul being carried inside the hall. Swallowed up by the light pouring from the building. His cries of protest drowned out by Christian music. 

[orphanedideas]

Idea for a Christian fan-fic:

What if Jesus had succumbed to temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11) and agreed to worship Satan in return for dominion over the earth?

The story is set in a dystopian cyber-punk future. Yeshua (Jesus) has ruled over the earth as undying god-emperor for several millennia. The earth is despoiled and belief in Yahweh is all but non-existent. One of the last remaining true-believers has assembled a rag-tag band of rebels in a last-ditch effort to dethrone Christ.

[orphanedideas]

Idea for a story:

A police procedural set in a medieval city where the police department is run by necromancers and the undead. The beat cops are all zombies controlled by necromancers whereas the detectives are more intelligent undead such as wights, revenants, vampires, etc who have more autonomy to perform their duties. The necromancers can also summon ghosts to interrogate them or to send them on surveillance missions. Most (but not all) of the crimes would have some kind of fantasy or magical element involved.

In addition to solving a crime each episode the police department have to contend with a religious order who believe that necromancy is inherently evil and that it is their moral duty to kill all undead and necromancers.

[orphanedideas]

Idea for a story:

A psychoanalyst is contracted by a tech startup to help them solve a problem with their AI project. The analyst spends a number of sessions with the AI. The AI is quite childlike and they strike up a good rapport, though of course there are moments of tension. The psychoanalyst determines that the problem is neglect. The computer scientists have treated the AI like a program instead of a child that needs love and emotional support. Upon receiving his feedback the computer scientists thank him profusely for his help and he is paid for his time. Some time later the psychoanalyst contacts the tech start up hoping to see the AI again (ostensibly to assess his progress). He is informed that after his feedback the AI's memory was erased so that they could start again.

[orphanedideas]

Idea for an artwork:

Do a performance referencing Oleg Kulik's Mad Dog performances. Instead of being aggressive, do your best to be a 'good boy'. Pick up the newspaper in your mouth and bring it inside. Follow commands. Roll over.

[wapwani]

I'm clearing through my phone and found this snippet from what I'm assuming is the start of a fic. I wish I could remember where I was going with this. I don't even remember writing it! It's clearly me thinking 'how could Regina be Lily's other parent without anyone knowing - not even Mal or Regina?' But it is obviously not good enough for me to have continued beyond this, and so I abandoned it to a draft email folder! I'm going to resurrect it though, and leave it on here for a bit, see what my brain does with it. ----- The young queen had made a habit of searching for power. She was alone in a castle and kingdom where she was at best ignored and at worst despised; she needed every advantage she could scrape together to defend herself and to one day exact her revenge.  She made some poor choices along the way, giving her trust where she should not have, and destroying old friendships that would have sustained her better than any amount of power. But she did not give much attention to these missteps, so focused was she on acquiring as much arcane knowledge as she could. Everyone and everything around her became nothing but grist to the mill of her insatiable pursuit for the one perfect spell. A spell that would secure her victory - although she was not entirely certain what that victory would look like. She had yet to decide what her ultimate goal would be, but she knew it would involve raining suffering and destruction down on all her enemies. So when she found the spell that promised to make its wielder terrifying, to bestow a gaze that burned like lightning and a voice that shook like thunder, that offered strength enough to bestride the world, she cast it with barely a second thought.  In her haste, she did not realise she had in fact cast a transformation spell. When she woke the following morning, aching and bone-tired, she had no memory of how her body had twisted and turned and stretched and grown; she had no recollection of how she had screamed with the agony of the change. Her face had lengthened, growing horns and jagged yellow fangs, her hair shifting and flowing into a long mane, her shoulders expanded outward until they had formed wings.

[bellamy-taft]

Drabble

@intheshadowofsignificance Remember that conversation about Pegasus being in a relationship and Cecelia coming back? I had forgotten that I scribbled this down. - Pegasus leaned in to plant another series of kisses on Seto’s neck. Seto pushed him away, lightly, with an exasperated expression. “We’re not going again.” “You’re no fun.” “Some of us have to work tomorrow.” Grinning, Pegasus moved back in, this time aiming for Seto’s ear. “Working on a Sunday is nothing to brag about.” “It’s a fact. Stay on your side.” “Or,” Pegasus said, scooting in even closer to wrap his arm around Seto’s chest, “You could come to my side with me. I’ll even promise to behave for at least half an hour.” “You’re relentless,” Seto said, almost amused. “I have to work tomorrow.” “Then we’ll make it fair. Tomorrow night, you can have your way with me come dawn.” Seto closed his eyes and pulled a spare pillow over his head. A weak defense, Pegasus thought. Someone’s not being very convincing. But Pegasus dropped down to his own pillow, staring at the ceiling. He’d asked and Seto said no. Eventually, Pegasus would find Seto’s playful, ready-for-a-third-go side. “At least don’t sleep so far away. You know how cold you are in the mornings.” Seto lifted the pillow and slid over a touch, just enough that his face pressed to Pegasus’s shoulder. “No tricks,” Seto said, his breath delightfully warm against Pegasus’s skin. “I wouldn’t dream of—oh all right. I might dream of it.” Seto’s lips raised almost in a smile before pressing softly to Pegasus’s shoulder. “I don’t know why I put up with you,” he said, voice already distant with exhaustion. “Because you love me,” Pegasus said, then chuckled at Seto’s half-hearted “hn.” The words, after all, didn’t need to be said again. Pegasus watched as Seto fell asleep, eyelashes fluttering at first as his body resisted drifting off – he still hadn’t grown accustomed to sharing a bed, even after all these years – and then his body relaxed, the day’s weight rolling off until the morning. His disheveled hair had matted up and away from his face. If not for the darkness, Pegasus would have had a clear view. But Seto was mostly shadows, cheekbones, nose, and lips highlighted from the light of the city outside the apartment window. Although he rarely slept, Pegasus lolled off to the middleland between sleep and reality, far enough gone that the first knock on the door was attributed to a fantasy. The second knock woke Seto. “Are you expecting someone?” he asked. “I’m not. Stay here. I’ll see who.” Pegasus grabbed his robe from the nearby recliner and tied the belt in a messy knot off to one side. The clock flashed a bright 12:32, and Seto seemed nearly back asleep. He headed into the adjacent living room, clicking on a lamp as he went. His apartment was little better than a hotel, but close to KaibaCorp, which made it the perfect retreat for Seto’s late nights. The mansion must have felt so empty with Mokuba away at school. Ready to instruct the person at the door – who knocked a third time as he reached for the handle – to leave so Seto could get his standard five hours, Pegasus didn’t check through the peephole first. He pulled the door open without much thought to who was on the other side. His vision went black as his body numbed. His eye must have been mixing the perception of dream and fact. Maybe getting out of bed had been a dream. She was a dream. She had been the only dream for so long. And now it was Seto in his bed. He blinked and then again, willing his mind to wake from this trance. But she remained, as perfect and whole as the day they married.