A Minor Variation

Remember how a bit back I mentioned that I kind of wanted to write a Gundam SEED Star Wars AU?

...yeah, I still really kind of want to do that.

Fortunately I am not yet Seized With Inspiration for it, which is an odd thing to say "fortunately" about, but I have plenty other fannish things to fixate on right now, and I'm still working on "Fortune Favors the Brave," not to mention all those notecards that I've done up in preparation for making serious headway on "With Good Intentions," so it is definitely just as well.

And yet...

( Here are some thoughts, so that I may find them later when I want them. )

Am I completely insane for even thinking about this?

Current terrible idea occupying my brain: a bizarre Gundam SEED/Star Wars AU hybrid. Mostly because Murrue would make a fantastic Jedi.

Of course, about the only thing this idea has going for it aside from that is that ridiculous Gundam SEED names and ridiculous Star Wars names go reasonably well together...

So I've been stewing on the four fics I owe for that prompt meme I posted, and I will get them all done before the end of the month, I promise.

In the meantime, though, I've also been stewing on that original fantasy idea I'm planning to do for NaNoWriMo. I'm getting a clearer notion of the plot, although there are still a lot of gaps to fill in.

( Cut for spam. )

I have been trying to write an Andy/Murrue fic since February.

That is kind of sad.

Particularly since I really haven't made much progress worth mentioning. I have an assortment of ideas, but they have yet to gel into an actual fic. I tried a bit of semi-stream-of-consciousness noodling with just dialogue to see what I could shake loose, but I can't say it's helped all that much.

( extremely fragmentary random Andy/Murrue dialogue snippets )

The idea that I'm simmering focuses on Valentine's Day and the unique significance it holds in the SEEDverse following Bloody Valentine and the ensuing war - there's something really intriguing about seeing an established lovers' holiday turn into a day for remembering grief and loss, and the particular perspective that Andy and Murrue would have on it, having both lost the ones they loved to the war. Understanding one another's grief draws them together, but it can't be easy to build a relationship when the ghosts of both your lost loves are (metaphorically) still so present.

I don't have a storyline, just an assortment of things I'd like to explore, like how Andy, who as a Coordinator and a soldier must be accustomed to a high level of physical ability, deals with physical disability - and more significantly how he settles into a civilian life and how much he has to struggle with boredom (cribbing shamelessly from the novelization, in which he refers to boredom as "my oldest enemy" and is pleased after first fighting Kira because he's found a stimulating challenge) - how the two of them came to be living together as shown in the earlier parts of Destiny, the reason for which I imagine must have been a series of practical considerations (Andy having to get used to brand new prosthesis, Murrue needing a place to live since she can't really go back to the Atlantic Federation after deserting) carefully arranged around the more basic need to not be alone - the basic concept of the relationship, mutual support and life going on and really not being about Romance or Passion or zomg True Love because at this point they've been there and done that and don't need to cover that ground again, and God, Murrue's tired of being the one left behind - and finding the balance between honoring the memory of the one you loved, and not being so tied to those memories that you aren't really living the life that they died to protect.

And I am embarrassed at how long it took me just to hack out those last two paragraphs. :(

Edit: I also kind of want to make some use of Derek Walcott's "Sea Canes," which may be cheap of me, but...

( cut for awesome )

More random thoughts on that whole personification thing... I'm kind of thinking I'd like to put it in a setting that's not the normal modern world, but has elements of the modern and the fantastic, kind of. Of course, that means I have to world-build...

Also, on the issue of the plot, I wonder if I could come up with something to be going on in the human world at the same time as Fate and Luck are going through their issues... maybe involving Luck's hypothetical sister. Again, no real ideas yet, but maybe something will come to me.

According to The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference, "margaritomancy" is a form of divination involving pearls.

I am struck by the urge to revive my urban fantasy PI storyline in order to set up a joke involving this term, my main character, her witchcraft-practicing associate, and some tequila.

Note to self: next time I'm in a bookstore, must check the New Age section for something to use as a reference for veg-o-magic.

Ahee.

A few more personification braindribbles before bed...

( Read more... )

Still noodling with that personification idea. Of all the potential aspects, Fate is the one I have the best concept of. Which isn't saying a whole lot.

( Fate-foo. )

I've had a lot of ideas on the brain lately. Due to a bounced email, I had to re-post all of my Wyvern's Library stuff, and in the process one of my unfinished stories received Moderator's Choice. Nothing like a little praise to make you think about writing more often.

Most of my stuff is unfinished; I have a number of projects I began and never did a lot with. Plus a few fanfic ideas that have occurred to me lately and which I have yet to do anything with at all.

I have it in mind to try and restart (or start, as the case may be) some of these projects, and see if I can't get any of them finished.

In particular -

The story idea that got mod's choice at Elfwood, involving a small-town private investigator in a version of the modern world where creatures of Faerie live openly and are either campaigning for or have recently received legal citizenship in the US. Not a new concept (see Melisa Michaels, Laurell K. Hamilton and Jim Butcher) but in this case, the PI has no supernatural training, heritage, or ability, and in fact would just as soon not have anything to do with fey, if only they'd quit seeking her out. Particular storyline to involve some sort of wealthy businessman who thinks he's being stalked and harassed but who actually has a poltergeist problem. Stumbling block - I have no idea what said businessman might do for a living, or how to make the whole fey-as-legal-citizens thing relevant, aside from the fact that dudeguy employs an unusually high number of fey.

A high fantasy piece about a retired half-elf and his very not retired elven former partner and a supernatural critter that's been eating people's dreams. I had specific ideas for where this would go at some point, but I've forgotten them all now, save that the critter in question would fight the partners through a number of illusions of their past, and that one of the major conflicts is that the half-elf is Getting Too Old For This Shit, but the elf is trying very hard to ignore that fact.

Another high fantasy piece dealing with a mercenary company, particularly one very stoic and professional guy named Asher who gets hired by a community which has been having monster problems, and must make a bunch of townsfolk somehow capable of dealing with said problems, and... there was a lot more to it, but damn if I can remember that now. There was, however, a romantic subplot which would end when Asher finished his contract and went back to his company, and the girl stayed in the town, because he wouldn't stay there and she couldn't follow him. Also some stuff about Asher's sister, who is a member of a militant religious order. I wish I kept better notes.

The sequel to the above, in which the love interest from the first story gets word that Asher's in jail in some exotic foreign county and ropes some of his fellow mercenaries into going to help spring him, only to find that he's not actually in prison - he's stuck bodyguarding a very young, very immature, very high-risk princess. This time the romantic subplot fares a little better, although there's no overt romance, and I have better notes on what I intended to happen but less recollection of what the major conflicts were supposed to be. Go fig.

I'd like to do some more fairy-tale rewrites. Beauty and the Beast is always good, or I could go for something less traditional, like the Steadfast Tin Soldier. No real ideas, though.

And the fanfic, both the FFVIII bit I posted about in October and a Kingdom Hearts vignette dealing with just why Squall/Leon hangs around Traverse Town picking off the small fry and advising Sora instead of marching off to try to actually do something about the major problem at hand.

Hm.