#plotting chatter

[valoisfulcanellideux]

A little bit of behind the scenes lore for REanima

Art by Sabira / @floweroflaurelin

If you've read REanima, my short story set in a dystopian future about bounty hunter Saiziege (MythicalSausage), the augmented Copper King CuprePaxi (Pixlriffs), and copper golem Parlse (PearlescentMoon) then you may have wondered what happened to all the other copper golems that made the repair of little Parlse something that had to be kept so secret.

Since I've been going through my notes this morning, trying to find something else, I thought I'd type up a bit of lore that I jotted down but never included in the story, mostly because it only came to me weeks after I'd posted it on AO3.

These are literally only notes transcribed from the notebook that I always carry with me, and they're also not fact-checked/heavily researched, so they're mostly just to give some flavour to the backstory of the character of CuprePaxi.

Be warned: this is heart-wrenching.

Behind the cut with you!

In the past, CuprePaxi created innocent, childlike copper golems as companions for people (maybe even as 'eternal children' for those who couldn't have them, due to the excessive amount of pollution in the city causing high levels of infertility). Each one took a long time to make, as they were hand-crafted, and he regarded them all as his children. Because he knew that - at some distant point in their future - he would probably be called upon to repair them, and he didn't want to cause them any distress when he did that, he programmed each of them to regard him as their father, their protector.

Copper became incredibly scarce because so much of it was needed for the infrastructure (wiring, piping, etc.) of The Wall. (This touches on the impending copper shortage our current world is looking at.)

At some point in the recent past all the known copper golems were confiscated by the authorities... and - in one giant crucible - they were melted down.

CuprePaxi lives to this day with the knowledge that circulated soon after this event: that workers in the foundry were horrified to hear hundreds of small voices calling out for 'father!' as the crucible was heated.

Because of his underworld connections, Saiziege had advance knowledge of the impending copper golem confiscation, and so he hid little Parlse away. When the officials arrived to check his home, he managed to convince them that he couldn't afford a copper golem of his own, and so Parlse escaped the purge.

Even CuprePaxi himself sometimes gets eyed up as a potential source of the metal because of the liquid copper channels embedded in his skin. Whenever he's visited by an official who brings him an android for repair and he spots them looking at those channels, he immediately puts on a show of vanity, explaining that the copper is synthetic and he had the channels inserted because he thought they looked good. And all the while, he knows that - just as easily as they melted down his children - so would they gladly gouge out his copper channels without a second thought if it meant a bit more of the metal to build a bit more of The Wall.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

About AToTD's rating, plus a character teaser

Given how it's going thus far, AToTD will probably need to be rated 'M' (Mature audiences) purely for the fact that it's going to contain some violence.

This is more me erring on the side of caution when it comes to tagging, since the next rating down from 'M' is 'T' ('may be inappropriate for audiences under 13') and while I'm pretty sure that what I've written thus far isn't anything that would be unpalatable for the average teenager, I'd prefer to treat the rating of this story with an abundance of caution.

The first chapter alone features some scenes that some might find graphic, even though (in my opinion) they're actually not. The inference is there, though, and how graphic the scenes come across will depend on how vivid your imagination is.

That first chapter will set the scene for what's actually going on throughout the story, so it's pretty crucial that the reader knows about it from the get-go.

That said, if nothing else, you're going to want to see the artwork that I've commissioned for this story. It's now complete, and dear god does it look amazing. I'm absolutely thrilled to bits with it. I won't share it until the fic is ready to start posting, but I'm having to really hold myself back from posting it now; I love it that much xD

So, onto the character teaser ;)

I've mentioned before that this will be a Copper King story, but you won't recognise this Copper King. He's not like Paix from These Stones Remember, but you've heard hints of him in Pix's original portrayal of him. Lines such as:

"The Copper King is not someone you trifle with unless you want to die on fire in a pit full of dripstone."

The character teaser is that the Copper King is not the main character in the story. You've already met the actual main character before. Not in my writing, but... elsewhere ;)

[valoisfulcanellideux]

The lore of The Machine

I've been trying to figure out a way to integrate The Machine into the world of These Stones Remember, but I was struggling with a few things:

Why would the people of the Ancient Capital build such a terrible, corrupting thing beneath their city?

If they didn't build it, then who did? An earlier civilisation? If that's the case, why - when I'm taking Pix's S2 finale as canon - would the migrating survivors of S1 (and/or their descendants, depending how long the journey took) have happened to build the Ancient Capital right on top of it? Sheer chance? or did something draw them to build there?

What was its original purpose? Someone built it, but did its construction originate with an evil, corrupting purpose, or did it have a more altruistic justification? Perhaps sculk was like one of those poisons that actually have rare medicinal uses when taken or used in small doses?

It turns out that my struggles were caused by straying from my primary source material: Pix's description of The Machine:

Deep in the darkness at the heart of the world, in a cavern buried under layers of rock, there dwells The Machine. Already ancient when it was first discovered, no-one could find any record of who built it, or how, or why. It simply existed, heretical and profane. A dark stain upon nature; surely the act of a people who had abandoned all their humanity.

Most who went near The Machine were driven away by the rattle of its mechanical innards, the screeching noises coming from deep within, the rushing sound of water, and a dark sense of unfathomable dread.

One fact remained: those who dared to approach The Machine, those could endure the unearthly noises it produced, those who would risk touching the ooze it emitted - moulding it, crushing it with their tools, or their boots, or between their hands - they emerged stronger than before.

– The Machine (Pixlriffs Empires S2 - Ep.2)

I'd been taking secondary sources as canon instead: the corruption of both Shubble and Cubfan. Those were both negative 'possessions' that caused 'wrongdoing'. But, note how Pix could cover himself in the stuff to try and convince Cub that he was on his side so he could cure him, and it had no negative effect on him, other than making him feel icky and making a point of diving into water to wash it off afterwards. So it didn't possess and corrupt everyone; only a few (and now I want to figure out what made Shubble and Cub susceptible to it).

But my primary source told a different story, one that didn't involve corruption: that those who could endure the noise and the terror, who dared to touch the sculk, emerged stronger than before.

In my worldbuilding, The Machine needs to be a test of willpower, a test of mental fortitude. And its reward should be physical (and possibly mental) strength, or something like that.

And, right there, Pix states that The Machine was already ancient when it was first discovered. So the people of the Ancient Capital will have discovered it. Heretical and profane would maybe have been their first opinions of it, until some brave (or foolhardy) soul dared to approach it and found out what it could do for them.

That's going to be some great meat for the bones of the chapter I plan to write about The Machine...

[valoisfulcanellideux]

These Stones Remember - plotting chatter

So, the Paixandrian exodus is beginning, and in Chapter 51 we will see the caravan leaving the city. (And yes, I'm afraid there will be inescapable Biblical overtones to this: a prophet king leading his people out of the desert while carrying in a coffer a precious treasure with near-religious significance.)

They will be making their camp in what is effectively the Spawn area in the real life server location, as that's central to almost all the empires. And now we come to the biggest conundrum:

Do we get to see which emperors survived?

We know that, canonically, four did not: Sausage, Pearl, Joel, and Scott. I already have Pearl's death as canon in These Stones Remember but the original canon reason for Scott's death - Xornoth - is not canon to my story.

But everyone else? I'm honestly not sure. I don't want to suddenly introduce a load of additional characters, so if I went with any option it would be to just check in on what happened with the emperors we have met in some detail: Sausage, fWhip, Gem, and Scott.

Of these, the one I want most to come across in the story... is fWhip. Mainly because he was (unwittingly) the cause of the whole maelstrom in the first place. In the story, he's unrelated to Gem, so he wouldn't seek her out in the wake of the destruction. And Gem wouldn't be flying away on Violet, because - again, in my story - she doesn't have a dragon egg. Likewise, Sausage and the blood sheep; not a thing in my story (although I do love Sabira's fanart of archaeologist!Pix taking notes beneath a statue of 'the Shepherd King' so I may run a little with that).

We know that, according to Pix's S2 finale, survivors from Mythland, the Grimlands, and the Crystal Cliffs all made it to the Ancient Capital. So, at minimum, we'll be finding people from those lands to join the caravan.

Mostly, I think i'd want it to be the ordinary folk who get rescued, rather than the emperors.

But fWhip, ah... I think we need to meet him again, and find out what happened to him. Poor lad...

[valoisfulcanellideux]

Some plotty thoughts about potions

Since we've reached the point of using a few potions in These Stones Remember, I've got a few notes that I'm going to put here regarding how potions work in this story's worldbuilding.

In this world, potions don’t usually confer instant ‘fixes’ for things. In general, I’m taking Minecraft mechanics but trying to make them a little more realistic and less fantastical. Some potions contain more magical elements, but others are more of a ‘home remedy’ that’s been tried and tested over the years. Pretty much all of the beneficial ones have some kind of alcohol base, because just the heat and bite of that can help, before the actual ingredients kick in.

Of the three used so far in the story:

A strength potion is one of the ‘home remedy’ types; more of a fortifying concoction, probably with a strong alcohol content (think a really good aged brandy) and possibly with some kind of natural painkiller infused into it that would allow the drinker to ignore aches and pains if they needed to.

A healing potion has a little magic distilled into it by means of enchantments spoken over the alembics while being brewed, but its base is still more of an overall ‘we threw a bunch of healing herbs into a pot, brewed it up, and over the years we found out that it helped with a lot of ailments’ kind of thing.

A regeneration potion is a truly magical potion, which is why they’re far more scarce, and why the one given to Mhenheli was offered with the exhortation that it should only be used sparingly. It won’t knit together bones, nor will it regrow limbs; its regenerative properties are more restorative, and are kind of a very powerful blend of strength and healing potion with a little extra mixed in. It will speed up healing, but it’s not instantaneous.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

*pats the blorbo*

"There there. No need to worry. It's only a time paradox. Nothing to worry about!"

*carries on writing, casting an occasional glance over at said increasingly panicked blorbo*

[valoisfulcanellideux]

Some plotty thoughts about Paix and Mhenheli

I'm plotting out how Paix's and Mhenheli's relationship in These Stones Remember is going to change in the wake of the maelstrom* and oh my goodness is this going to be lovely.

I will be adhering to the NRR tag that I gave the story on AO3, since I am a firm believer in not changing tags partway through a story. If nothing else, changing such an important tag as NRR can be misleading to readers who might not be interested in reading about romantic relationships, and who might (rightly) feel betrayed that - all of a sudden - a fic they loved and trusted has veered into territory they're not comfortable with. (And I need not remind you that I'm uncomfortable myself with the whole 'RPF' tagging thing AO3 has going on for some MCYTers. My stories are about the characters, not about the people behind them).

However, everyone will have their own definition of what a romantic relationship is, and some might worry that what Paix and Mhenheli will end up as might stray into their own definition of that, but for my definition... it won't. And I'm writing this thing, so the NRR has been my own definition of it all along. You've trusted me so far, so please keep on doing that.

I won't give any details, because y'know... PLOT, but the change will be subtle, and it will be beneficial to both of them (not to mention healthier for both of them, as all of that previously-repressed emotion isn't good for a person, right?) Just think of the tender and affectionate way Paix behaved toward his old nurse Nehle-aalh - which was definitely not a romantic relationship! - and you'll be on the right track, for both Paix and Mhenheli.

You'll see the first subtle changes in the next chapter. And you'll also see why they begin to happen :)

*As an aside 'the maelstrom' is pretty much how I've been referring to the destruction of the city. I really need to come up with a word for it that Paixandrians can use for their recorded histories. And now that I've typed that, I really want to write one of their recorded histories of it, as it would have been set down at the time. (So yeah, that's getting added to the 'Part 2 sketches' list.) God, this world just keeps on building itself, and I fucking love it.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

A small teaser for something...

Specifically, something that will happen in the future of These Stones Remember.

I've been plotting madly, and one part that I came up with has the following words scribbled beside it in my notebook:

"a bit like Pratchett: all the spells a wizard knows saying themselves when the wizard dies"

This, of course (to Pratchett fans) is a reference to the research work of Skrelt Changebasket.

He made a study of the Octavo and the Eight Great Spells and discovered that while most spells will say themselves when the wizard who has memorised them dies, this is not true of the Great Spells. Changebasket wrote a book stating that the spells would instead take refuge in the nearest object.

Hrmm. Who do we know with a lot of words in their head? ;)