Tuesday, April 30, 2002

I used to know his origin and all, but that was, um, badly written. Well, not written; I never got that far. Badly plotted. I'm no longer satisfied with it, in the sense that ever attempting to make that original story work would cause me to gouge my eyes out with a fork.

As I was falling asleep, I managed to get a pretty solid idea of what actually happened. Um, and by "actually," I mean "actually in the timeline." Which is good.

Islan was a pretty cool guy, actually. A Knight fallen from grace type (with an evil bitch queen, I think--originally his wife) he ended up being sent out to search for colonies for said queen. In the sense that as soon as he and his crew were out of sight of the mainland (colonies = islands in this case) the queen's fleet attacked them. They refused to go down without a fight, and ended up winning and becoming pirates.

Fast forward, say, a year? Two? I haven't decided. Anyway, they're being attacked again. By several ships at once. And on the brink of being overwhelmed and dying. Islan, as he's fighting, prays to "whatever diety is listening," to give him a second chance. All he'd wanted to do was help people who couldn't help themselves; for that, it seemed, he would end up with a gruesome death.

Out of nowhere comes a tidal wave of ginourmous proportioins/whirl pool of ginourmous proportions/thunder storm of ginormous proportions (insert your favorite ocean-bound natural disaster here) and the pirates, fleet, and all aboard are wiped out.

Except Islan, who wakes on a shore he's never seen before.... (dum dum DUM....)

I dunno if it's actually worth fleshing out, though.
Becky had too much free time at 7:51 PM

Monday, April 29, 2002

Age: 52
Birthday: ..., 2117
Hair: Short cut and mostly wavy; black, but graying around the temples
Eyes: dark blue and reflective; never, ever, ever emotional
Physical: Trim, fit, about average build. He makes use of his personal trainer, and is buff enough to be impressive and intimidating, but not a muscle-man by any means
Distinguishing Trait: The air of "don't fuck with me," that surrounds him at all times. His voice is pretty damn distinguishing: very cold and calculating, very in charge
Orientation: straight
Family: wife (deceased, for all we know); son, Damon
Past Lives: Richard and Petruchio

Nathaniel (AKA Nathan or Nate, depending on who he's speaking with) grew up in wealth and plenty. He was a brilliant child and studied hard and diligently, was taught by the best private tutors and later attended the best university Celey Corp ran, where he graduated top of his class. He took over the family business at age thirty, when they were fourth out of the Big Five; by the time Threecee folded several years later, they were second and after the fold, first.
Needless to say, Nathan is a ruthless businessman and a political genius. He's not nearly as good in terms of personal relations, though, and his son is far too like him—equally stubborn, equally used to getting his own way. He saw Damon's potential and was furious when the child refused to live it to its full extend, leading to fight after fight between the two.
Nate Celey is rumored to have no emotions. He lives, rumor says, for business and business alone, in other words, business is his life. They claim that he will do anything to stay on top, laws and love be damned. This is not quite true.
Nathaniel felt two things simultaneously the night he saw his son in a coma in the hospital: fear and love. These were followed quickly by guilt, and then all three were overshadowed by incredibly rage. Nathan hates showing emotion, as far as he's concerned, emotion and weakness are one and the same. This didn't stop him from making his son's life hell for the next few years. He'll claim it was for Damon's own good, to keep him from humiliating himself, his father and their company, not to mention keeping him off blitz, but the truth is that Nathaniel is far more upset that his son was able to bring out so many emotions within him.
Despite everything, Nathaniel is not the cold-hearted cut-throat businessman he appears. All of his general meanness towards Damon aside, Nate genuinely loves his son, though there is nothing that could convince him to show it, in any way, ever.
He has few friends and many enemies, but they're enemies who are so comfortable with each other that they're very much like friends. Such is the case with one Samuel Arison. The two men were rivals all through college (Sam's father paid dearly to get him into the superior Celey Corp school) and are business rivals now. They detest each other, but love having someone to hate with such a passion. Nathaniel harbors no real ill will towards Sam, though the same is not necessarily true in reverse. After so many years, they are actually fairly good friends, though neither one would ever go so far as to trust the other.
As things stand at the novel's start, Nathan is the "bad guy," in as much as the story has a villain. This isn't really his fault and has a lot to do with past lives he has no control over, but it does make things miserable for Damon. He still can't let his son's mistakes go and thus is still punishing Damon.
Becky had too much free time at 11:25 AM

Thursday, April 25, 2002

When Ilyan was alive, he had black bangs and the rest of his hair was white, much like Islana's. Erra's was the same, and secretly still is, but he dyes it black.

I probably wouldn't have done it like that if I was inventing this world now, but it's a remnant from the original version of the Saga in 8th grade. Ah, well. What can I do? *shrug*
Becky had too much free time at 1:33 AM

Monday, April 15, 2002

Character Profile: Quindel Aleazin

Age: 19
Birthday: September 12, 2150
Hair: thin, light brown hair; far too long, stringy, and relatively unwashed
Eyes: hazel, frequently entirely distant and faraway looking
Physical: Quin is skin and bones; quite tall and waiflike. He's potentially pretty hot, but just kind of looks like an abused puppy.
Distinguishing Traits: blitz tracks up both of his arms, though particularly the left; dark circles under his eyes; frequently wears a black trenchcoat and carries a big gun or two. And he shakes a lot.
Orientation: gay
Family: none
Past lives: none

For all he knows, Quin just appeared one day in 2147 some time. He occasionally has flashes of his life before two and a half years ago; things usually involving doctors, needles, sitting in a glass box under observation, and general unpleasantries. Getting flashes of these leave him shaking in fear, usually; he can't explain what the doctors did to him, he just remembers being terrified.
And of course, there are the odd tidbits they left in his mind. He doesn't know what they are or how they got there, just that when he decides to listen, his memory goes photographic; every now and then, he performs amazing feats of gymnastics and can be incredibly (and effectively) violent when provoked. The people in the Below (or at least his neighborhood) are pretty damn scared of him. Their basic rule (the basic rule of life in the Below) is not to fuck with a junkie looking for a hit; every now and then someone would challenge Quin as he was out finding his drugs, and that always resulted in severe bodily harm on the part of the agressor. On the other hand, wait until he's happily high ("blitzed out") and you could rob him blind with no problem.
With the Shads plague running rampant through the Below, it would have been far more surprising for Quin not to have contracted the disease than finding out he did, which, of course, he did. He had passed out in front of the Charity Shads Clinic, run by a few do-gooders from the Above, which was designed to test and try and help Shads victims. There was no cure, but Quin resisted their help when he found out he was, esentially, dying; he didn't care enough to try and get in off the streets.
They said he had six months to live. A year later, while he was still waiting to die, one of the Corporations—he didn't even know which one—was looking for grunt workers, and took him in, (using the preferred "grab him in a dark alley and drag him off to their lair" recruitment method), ran a few tests, and discovered that despite his incredibly frail exterior and severe blitz addiction, Quin was almost superhumanly strong and agile, and, when he could concentrate on something other than his drugs (a rare occasion indeed) abnormally perceptive and intuitive. Rather than waste a surprising find, they ran him through a few simulations of attackers and such, and he kicked ass every single time.
Word of this wonderjunkie was sent to some of the higher ups, who did their research and came up with a vague idea what was going, but chose not to tell anyone else. Quin was sent out on a different variety of jobs than originally intended; he was very much a corporate slave like everyone else kidnapped from the Below, but instead of doing basic labor, he was an assassin. He was given blitz and money in return for the jobs he did, though he wasn't really given a choice. His employers were nameless; all he ever saw were generic drones who could have worked for anyone.
Quin is a very quiet, very desperate man. He has no loyalties to anyone except his dealers, and no particular drive or motivation to do or achieve anything. He realized when he was undergoing tests at the hands of his employers that, somehow, he'd overcome Shads (they'd tested him for it and he'd come up negative, y'see) but it never occurred to him that it this was in any way important. He's still basically waiting to die when the story begins. He understands the abject poverty he's surrounded with, and particularly is disgusted with himself, but doesn't feel he has any way to change it. He's been living in such conditions, which includes fear of his employers as well as the poverty, for so long it feels like normal; he has no idea there's any alternative.
And then Quin met Damon. Or rather, will meet in the story, but it has rather a significant impact on him. For one, Quin was pretty much asexual before meeting Damon, he had no real interest in girls or boys, as any urges he had were all blitz cravings. Damon brought out that side of him; I'd hazard a guess that Quin is, in fact, bisexual, but that's unimportant to the story. Damon also brought out the fact that Quin can be fiercely loyal to those he cares for, he's just never had a reason before. While he disregards his own life, Quin is quite protective of those he eventually cares for.
Needless to say, Quin has no self-esteem to speak of.
Becky had too much free time at 2:46 PM

It occurs to me that I should figure out how Celey is pronounced. Half the time I read it with a soft c, like celery, and the rest of the time it's a hard c, like it was actually Kelly. I like the soft C more for Celey Corp, 'cause the repetition of the k noise would bother me, but I don't like it for his last name. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Becky had too much free time at 2:14 PM

Friday, April 12, 2002

Age: 25
Birthday: April 15, 2144
Hair: black and wavy, but cut short in an attempt to keep it neat.
Eyes: blue, glass, and emotional; he frequently wears sunglasses to cover the emotions they let on
Physical: built. Like, built. Suits cover it up pretty well, but he works out compulsively, so after awhile… Also, he's "so pretty it makes you want to cry."
Distinguishing Trait: blitz tracks (like heroine tracks) up his left arm
Orientation: gay
Family: Father, Nathaniel Celey; mother, never mentioned in the story
Past Lives: Katharina, Carolina

Damon was always incredibly bright, with a brilliant understanding of politics and business from a young age. He had the best education and upbringing, and was the best imaginable Heir for Celey Corp. The only problem was that he and his father never quite saw eye to eye and fought. A lot. All the time. Damon, while very smart about some things is an idiot about many others, including the fact that he is stubborn and can be short-sighted where his father is concerned. He always felt that his father never gave him enough credit and was always too critical of him, which was partially true, but as a result, Damon's teen rebellion went badly.
The problem was basically that Damon was too far under his father's control to actually rebel; he was stuck with private screaming matches with his father. He was bright enough to behave in public, as there were cameras and security following him all the time. Such is the price of being virtual Royalty, but still. He grew to detest his father and demanded to be allowed lower security levels and to attend a "standard" university, meaning one not run by Celey Corp. In return for this, Damon agreed to shut up and be a good son in public.
His junior year of college, Damon started to crack under the pressure. He was still a walking rep. for Celey Corp and as such in the spotlight all the time; he was expected to make high grades and had to establish "connections." His father was still being fairly evil, and so he eventually sought out a group of friends he knew his father would hate, just for the sake of getting some revenge. The more awful his father was and the more stressful school became, the farther into the "bad" crowd he descended, all of which eventually culminated with his introduction to blitz. He lasted three months on blitz, doing more and more, until eventually, after three months, he was found by a security guard, in a coma in his room.
That was the end of Damon's standard university life. He spent six months in rehabilitation, as blitz is by far the hardest drug to get off and has the most devastating withdrawal effects. The public was told that Damon was beginning part-time work for his father and thus was moving to a private, Celey Corp college, and thus he was relatively out of the spotlight and the scandal was covered. But needless to say, his father was furious.
The agreement they worked out, which Nathaniel considered generous and Damon was in no position to argue (what with barely being conscious and all) which was that after he was back on his feet, he would split his time between taking private classes and working for his father, but rather than the high class businessman people figured he would be, he was working as a drone, signed on for five years. Dronework is essentially the most degrading, lowest form of corporate work; it varies from secretarial (the good side) to gophering, filing (fairly brutal when you consider that these are paper warehouses and it's all done manually) and other chores that are beneath the rest of the business world's dignity. And Damon having grown up expecting to be A Major Businessman was none to thrilled with this once he was back on his feet, but he didn't have a choice.
He was also choiceless about his sudden engagement. He discovered that while he'd been recovering, his father had signed a merger deal with TiaCo, one of their rival companies. The merger wouldn't take place for awhile yet, and to publicize the deal, Mr. Tiaret (first name pending) and Nathaniel agreed that Damon would marry Izellah Tiaret.
Damon, who never really got around to telling his father (or anyone else) that he likes boys, was less than thrilled, but stuck. He'd managed to keep his romantic life very private, though when he'd been at the standard university, he had been seen publicly with a few girls—female friends, not dates, but that was enough for people to assume he was straight.
Now back in the relatively private sector, Damon's identity was kept mostly secret. His father wanted him to do dronework and knew full well that if managers knew who Damon was, they'd give him the lightest work possible; no one wants to piss off his future employer. But, though Damon hated the work almost as much as he hated his father, he enjoyed the anonymity. It gave him a chance to... ahem... explore dating options.
He met, fell for, and adored one of the business people he was acting as general secretary for, and they hit it off as a couple. They dated for awhile in secret, but Izellah, who didn't know that Damon was gay and had since fallen in love with him (and Damon had no idea about Izellah's feelings) began to get suspicious, and when Damon realized she had caught on, he decided to deal with it.
Damon hired a hooker of the female variety and timed it so that Izellah would walk in on them. He apologized profusely and convinced her that, although they were getting married for business' sake, they should feel free to date whoever they actually chose. He wouldn't object if she did, and she agreed to keep this quiet as well. As he'd never really had the chance for normal social interactions and had no idea she was in love wit him, and still (at our story's start) doesn't.
He and his boyfriend have since broken up. He's four years into his five year drone agreement and hates it even more now, despite the fact that he has become a far better treated drone—his identity eventually leaked. As things stand now, he's convinced he's ready to start handling real business work, though his father won't let him. He hates his father, and is kind to Izellah but has no real feelings for her.

Coming soon: profile for Alternate Universe Damon as well as past life Damon. Probably Quin's profile first, though. (How cute are Quin and Damon? Dysfuctional, but cuuuuute.)
Becky had too much free time at 1:29 AM

Thursday, April 11, 2002

1) I'm looking for people to read the original. It's bad. Really, really bad. But I want to know a lot of things--what sticks out as the best and the worst, what doesn't make sense, what should be developed more, which characters should be lost/revamped entirely, etc. So if you are interested in reading the 103 page monstrosity and don't mind my obsessively questioning it, let me know. Anyone? Pleeeeeeeeease?

2) I'm going to be posting bits'n'pieces of things here. Probably not the story itself (something about how publishers want first publishing rights, and that can include online publishing, so actually posting it would hurt my chances of really publishing it, and it's the only vaguely marketable book idea I have...) but a lot of the prewriting. And I plan to do pretty extensive prewriting. Some of the things I post will be spoiler-y, if you're interested in reading the eventual finished product (though I'm not going to pretend to attempt to guess when it would be finished) read with caution.

3) Depending on how into this I get, other projects (coughSagacough) may start to move a little slower. Than again, maybe not. We'll see....
Becky had too much free time at 12:19 PM

Sunday, April 07, 2002

I could probably have done a much cleaner job on things like her hands and made the outline less ginourmous and such, but I'm far too lazy. Which you already knew.

Hmmm... I like this more than I thought I did.
Becky had too much free time at 3:55 PM