The Bookwyrm

12 minutes ago, Ookla the Irreplaceable said:

I like that a idea a lot

for the magic system it could be soft, assuming the character is already a master of it

I might also just make it so magic is there in the world somewhere but it's more of an arcane thing that people don't know much about. Or something. I'll figure it out.

If we wanted to skip worldbuilding in future scenes we could also just write them in an already established world.

*pokes head in*

Just now, Halcyon The Only said:

Ok yes personally I like all of this. 

Let’s do this one dudes :3 

*whispwrs menacingly* agreee with meee

If you want, at some point to day I can hammer out some basic worldbuilding for the setting, and then the people better at characters than me can work on the characters? And once we have general descriptions of setting and characters, we can outline the scene, then all go write it.

If we want magic it can be more ambiguous. I don't want any worldbuilding beyond basic setting or what might be needed for the scene.

One idea I had, that would mix some action and some character interaction, would be someone in a fantasy setting sneaking into a prison to break out another character. Only except maybe once they succeed some kind of character drama happens, like a betrayal or an uncovered lie or something.

3 minutes ago, Ookla the Irreplaceable said:

honestly that makes sense

I'm down

tho would every scene have the same general beats or would we have just one plot and write with that, if that makes sense?

I don't think they should be related, just to keep the variety high. We could have one in a more fantasy setting and one in a more modern setting, for example.

Hm....

Okay...Let's start throwing out ideas. A lot of people want a dramatic character interaction. What would that look like?

Just now, Halcyon The Only said:

Grrr

I suppose you have a point. I’d definitely like to write something somewhat emotional, at least, because seeing how different people write emotion is very fun. 

I'm just not as good at it, I suppose

The general style and preference of the vast majority of writers on the Shard right now is very far from mine...

4 minutes ago, Halcyon The Only said:

I wouldn’t say it needs to be a drama— it just has to have an important emotional moment for the character. Action scene would be okay (I’m bad at those cough cough), and I like the heist idea. 

I was joking about the heist. Mostly.

I don't think there needs to be an important emotional moment for the character for the sake of the experiment; we could just as easily compare writing styles with something simple, like a person opening a store for a business day. Something casual. (If slightly boring.) 

I mean, if we end up wanting to do that, then we'll do it, but I don't think it's strictly neccessary.

I guess we could also come up with multiple scenes that hit different tones. One more emotional, character based, and another more setting-situation based. Each person would still have to write both of them for the sake of data points, but then at least we'd be able to have our cake and eat it too.

I dunno.

EDIT: Also @Kajsa @Medium you guys like writing come see this when you wake up.

...

I am realizing after I ping these two that the likelyhood of me writing an emotional character scene is steadily rising.

2 minutes ago, Through The Living Glass said:

mm I shall be back in the morning

but this will be fun thought . . . !

*snore*

Understood.

...I should not be awake right now either for the record.

But ah well.

Just now, Halcyon The Only said:

(Hehehe sorry) 

The scene definitely needs to be high emotion. I don’t have anything particular in mind, but maybe a verbal argument or breakup, or perhaps some kind of a murder. Maybe the MC has been lying to the side character this whole time— oh no what a catastratastophe. 

@Through The Living Glass you mean mother don’t leave meeee

...But does it need to...?

It could just as easily be an action scene, or a steal scene, or a friendly conversation, or a description of a new area, or...a heist...or something...it doesn't need to be a drama...

...Does it?

An idea brewed up in the comment thread of an SU.

The general premise is this; we decide on a short scene, one that would only come out to a few pages. We outline it; premise, details, setting, characters, interactions, beats, conclusion, so on and so forth, so that each of us has a good idea of what this scene looks like. Then, with that outline, we each go and write the scene as we see it in our mind, using our own writing styles and preferences. Then we compare.

Just a little something I was curious about, and am interested to see what would pop up.

First order of business is deciding on what kind of scene we want this to be, so start throwing out ideas.

@Halcyon The Only (dangit, I typed in "The Halcyon Girl" and nothing came up (why do you do this to me)) @Ookla the Irreplaceable @Through The Living Glass 

Just now, Magi said:

Liv looked with her, going back to the place where she'd found the document in her pocket--maybe there was more worth discovering.

@The Bookwyrm

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If she took it, then yes.

There was a part of the torn document lying on the ground, but not much else of note. The portion of the document read:

-appearance of the agents from the Department of Containment and Protection raises the possibility of temporal anomalies  caused by the Rabbit Hole's influence. The unidentified agents were only present for a few minutes, but they seemed to be responding to an event that, from our perspective, has not occurred yet; possibly a containment breach. This information is concerning, and should be taken into account during further research and monitoring. Confirmation of the existence of similar anomalies in our present time is now being searched for.

At the bottom of the page there was a handwritten note.

Director Roost isn't doing a damn thing about this. We need to figure out what this means and what to do about it, even if it means directly disobeying him. Command in Seattle still hasn't responded. I'm getting worried.

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Even if you can read the redacted text, your characters can't. So keep that in mind.

If you want to keep high immersion, you could also just...not read the redacted text. But it's your choice!

34 minutes ago, Magi said:

She paused.

". . .  that is a good point, since it's were we'd been before all this."

30 minutes ago, Through The Living Glass said:

"Exactly!"

She walked in.

@The Bookwyrm

The circular room was not the same as it had been. Devices seemed damaged, or were entirely missing. Papers were torn or scattered. A faint mist hung in the room.

The only thing that could be seen through the glass that looked into the Rabbit Hole's clearing was fog. Nothing but uniform grey. Not a single detail could be made out; not the hole itself, not the devices surrounding it.

1 minute ago, Through The Living Glass said:

Astrid followed.

2 minutes ago, Ookla the Finwëan said:

"Alright then."

They left the right room and re-entered the front lobby. Liv crossed to the left-hand door, walking briskly.

The room on the other side of the lobby seemed to serve a similar purpose to the one on the other side of the lobby, in that it didn't seem to serve much of a purpose besides being a transition point. This one didn't have an elevator, but there was nothing of real note.

14 minutes ago, Ookla the Finwëan said:

@The Bookwyrm

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There's a door on the other side, following the curve of the roughly curcular building, a door that leads to the room surrounding the Rabbit Hole, the elevator, and the door back.

16 minutes ago, Ookla the Finwëan said:

"Well, that's something," She told Astrid as she ducked inside.

"At least their aren't any misty ghost people in here." She began sorting through the debris for any other papers that might match the one she'd found.

@Ookla the Inconclusive

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What paper is she reffering to?

Just now, Ookla the Finwëan said:

Liv still wanted to go through the door on the right side, based on instinct.

@Ookla the Ouroboros

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Yeah...life got crazy over the past little bit. I'll see if I can get back into this.

The door opened, revealing a room not very different from the one she'd exited. However, this one lacked a reception desk, and had an elevator.

1 hour ago, Ookla the Finwëan said:

"Well, that seems promising enough," Liv muttered to herself, "Come on."

She grabbed Astrid's wrist and pulled her over. The door probably wouldn't be locked if it was a central route most of the workers flowed through, just she pushed on the door to see anyway.

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Wait, are you going through the door on the right or the one in the middle?

For context, the one in the middle leads to where you were when the fog explosion happened. I don't know if I made that clear.

I should probably just make a map...

7 minutes ago, Ookla the Finwëan said:

Liv squinted at the room, "Maybe it's some kind of illusion? Or it was an illusion before?"

She walked a little further into the room, glancing at the two doors, "Which direction do you want to go?"

There was no immediatley visable signage, as if the whole floor was for the same purpose. Either that or the signs had gotten destroyed. The only lettering was of the door directly ahead, which said "TO ANOMALY SOURCE CONTAINMENT".

5 minutes ago, Ookla the Finwëan said:

"The say to always pick right in mazes, so . . ." Liv said, turning to the right door and approaching it cautiously.

There was no apparent sound or movement on the other side.

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Sorry guys, I've been focusing on work a little more the last few days.

23 hours ago, Ookla the Finwëan said:

Liv opened the door for Astrid, peaking inside. Hopefully their weren't other . . . mist people in there.

On 12/9/2024 at 3:19 PM, Ookla the Inconclusive said:

Astrid warily entered.

The building, though it had been in perfect condition only minutes before, was now in a state of disrepair; machinery was deactivated, the floor was cracked, and papers were scattered across the floor.

The door to the circular room surrounding the Rabbit Hole's clearing stood ominously across from them. There was a door each on the two other sides, leading to other parts of the building.

On 12/9/2024 at 6:13 PM, Ookla the Irreplaceable said:

Matthew rolled his eyes. "Just, follow my lead."

On 12/10/2024 at 1:33 AM, Ookla the Doomfrog said:

"O-okay."

The next few rooms were also covered in moss, vines, and roots, though none of them seemed immediatley hostile. One of the rooms seemed like a lab of some kind, though it was hard to tell with all the overgrowth.

On 12/9/2024 at 3:18 PM, Ookla the Dragonslayer said:

Kastel stepped in. He should probably see what they were up against.

There was no sign of anyone else, at least not immediatley. Only the office cubicles and rows upon rows of filing cabinets.

3 hours ago, Ookla the Dragonslayer said:

Kastel pressed the basement 2 floor.

A sign attached to the ceiling when the elevator door opened read "Low Classification Records Archive". The room beyond was a small carpeted area with a tiny reception desk, leading to rows of office spaces and storage for filing documents.

2 hours ago, Ookla the Inconclusive said:

Astrid nodded, disturbed. She hadn't noticed that there wasn't blood until now.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea . . ."

2 hours ago, Ookla the Finwëan said:

Liv continues walk towards the building they were already going too, staying near Astrid.

The rest of the walk to the containment building was uneventful. Eventually, the two agents reached the main enterance to the facility.

4 minutes ago, Ookla the Dragonslayer said:

Kastel held the card up to the reader, then pressed the button.

As the reader detected the card, the automated voice said "CLEARANCE 2 ACCESS GRANTED."

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Which button? Which floor is he going to?

4 minutes ago, Ookla the Dragonslayer said:

Kastel took this, then doubled back to the elevator, attempting to figure out how to use it.

There was a reader Kastel could hold the card up to.

2 minutes ago, Ookla the Doomfrog said:

 

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He will have a device for detecting anomalous frequencies, yes, and I think it's in character for him to have portable lab equipment type stuff. That's his job. So I think you're good to go!

2 minutes ago, Ookla the Dragonslayer said:

Kastel shot some of the doors.

Each of them contained a small bedroom with a desk and a personal bathroom to the side. They were filled with personal effects and clothing items, everything to suggest that most of the facility personnel actually did live on-site, at least temporarily. 

For the first few rooms there was no luck, though one did have a document on the desk, next to a mug of writing utensils.

Federal Agency of Research and Control
Facility WA-ACM-4 "The Rim"
Internal Correspondence

I know you keep taking my pens, Walter. I don't give a [CENSORED] about your "trades" or whatever. Just give it back, or I'm filing a report. I've had enough.

Eventually, he managed to find a card with the name "Samantha Clearwater" on it. The photograph was of a young woman, probably in her mid twenties, with light skin and curly black hair. She had a smirk on her face, like she wanted to smile more but wasn't supposed to for the photo. The bottom of the card read CLEARANCE LEVEL: 2