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OSUViking

NaNoWriMo V2: OSUVike's and Razor's Sci-Fi Boogaloo

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The time is coming. Anyone else want to take a shot at this again? I'm currently working on outlining my concept.

Edited by RazorStar
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You know I'm in. I won last year and I want to win again.

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I doubt I'll find the time to participate but would very much enjoy reading outlines/passages of what you guys come up with.

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I'd be down to share my outline, though I don't mince words about how it ends in the outline.

 

My general concept is this:

 

"An AI escapes a government facility and exploits a student with schizophrenia in order to escape the country."

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Whoa. That sounds unique. I'm in.

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I'll be continuing the story I did last year. Pollux, a priest from the Navahn Church works together with his companions to find a missing relic, and slowly uncovers a god's conspiracy.

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A god's conspiracy. Whoa.

 

Re-title this thread, "Sci-Fi Adventures of Razor and OSUVike." :D

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Lol, I went to rename this but I don't remember how... :(

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I have always wanted to write but anytime I try, I feel like the dialogue is just straight cheese. :lol:

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I have a novel idea I've yet to truly flesh out, but it's not sci-fi so suddenly it would feel out of place in this thread. :D

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Just write away guys. We can edit the title to accommodate you plebs :p

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Part of the fun is just going at it and writing. The hard work is always the editing, but NaNo is just about getting words on the page, deciding what to do with them comes later. Anyway, I know SteVo wanted some excerpts, so here's the first chapter of what I wrote last year.

 

 

Chapter 1: Wanderers

 

In a quiet town not too far from the border, a group of travelers wandered through the sandy expanse. The leader of their group shielded his face from the swirling dust and wind as he looked at the device nestled in his pocket. In normal circumstances the three needles inside would point towards the God of Balance, Ferron. However the alignment was slightly off, almost imperceptibly, but as he had been checking these readings constantly, he knew something was amiss. He clucked his tongue and adjusted his brimmed hat.

 

“Something is wrong here.” He said to his group of his companions. “We’re going to be staying in the area a while, so get comfortable.” He slid the device back into his pocket and took a good look at the people of the town. While they weren’t unhealthy or sick, it was important to notice their changes in appearance over time. Given the small level of distortion, he felt it was unlikely the townspeople would develop any strange traits or behaviours but it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out.

 

The wind roared, slamming wooden doors open and shut on their hinges, and blowing sand straight into the man’s eyes. The woman beside him giggled. “I thought the wind favoured you, Pollux.” He wiped his brow with a dry handkerchief and smirked.

 

“Seyn can be cruel to me, but she never hits me with thorny words.” He smiled and admired her deadpan expression.

 

“If it wasn’t funny the first time you said it, why would it be funny the fiftieth time?” She sighed. “Anyway, if we’re going to be here a while, we may as well set up a base of operations, right?”

 

Pollux nodded, and then looked at the rest of the group. He pointed out a lanky man wearing a thick gray coat and sombre expression. “Gill, how’s our money situation?”

“We should be able to rent a building in this town, but we’ll need to take on some odd jobs to keep food on the table.” He said serenely.

 

The man smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s good. Find us a place closest to the biggest bar in the city. Take Luevin and Ankerdal with you as well, if you need to negotiate the terms.” He turned to the two large men who quickly nodded assent. Though they were from different parts of the world, they quickly became fast friends and were virtually inseparable.

 

“Your concern is touching, Master Pollux. I’ll be sure to find you a place worthy of your family’s legacy.” He and the two beefy men separated to find a building. Pax simply shook his head. Rose looked bored as always while the twins Alia and Exia were off in their own world, admiring the sights of the slightly dilapidated town.

 

“Well, the rest of you are with me. We’re gonna do some rumour hunting, and once we have a place to settle down, we’ll get to work.” Pollux brushed some sand off his lapels and carried on.

 

“Rumour hunting?” Exia raised her hand, puzzled by the expression.

 

“It means we go around talking to people, looking for things we can do to help out.” Her sister Alia responded.

 

She tilted her head to the side. “But why? I don’t get it.”

 

Pollux smiled and patted the girl on the head. “When we help other people, they in turn help us. Not to mention these errands give us ample opportunity to investigate what exactly is going on here to throw this region out of balance.”

 

She smiled. “Oh I get it! You’re pretty smart, sometimes.”

 

Pollux tilted his head back to start laughing, but stopped, “Hey wait, what’d you mean, ‘sometimes?”

 

The small girls shared a chuckle while the older woman stifled a groan. “Can we just get down to business? I wasn’t expecting it to be so cold around here.” She rubbed her shoulders and looked around the dusty town. “Seems like the citizens weren’t either.”

 

Pollux scratched his head. “Alright, Rose. First things first, let’s hit the bar. Nothing quite like a gathering of locals and alcohol for news to spread.” He looked down at the girls beside him. “And no, I’m not buying you two alcohol. You’re still too young for that.” He kicked the sand from his boots and strode along, keeping a watchful eye on the people around him. The conclusion he drew was simple, they were drawing a lot of attention. Perhaps it was his vibrant green clothing, or maybe it was the sheer bulk of the men who left with his steward, Guillaume. He found the whole thing to be a little queer.

 

In a matter of minutes they came across their destination. The building had it’s own quaint charm. The wooden panelling of the doors was exquisite and well maintained, showing hardly any signs of abrasion damage like so many of the other buildings in the area had. The sign overhead had lost some lustre, but still stood out thanks to it’s garish decoration on top. “The Hog’s Head.” He mumbled. “Well it’s certainly on the nose, if anything.” He and the girls walked into the bar and took in the sights and sounds.

 

His boots clacked against the wooden floors in the dimly lit bar. The only other sounds were a few gentlemen rattling chips against the table and an old man slowly thumbing through the local paper. The place was far too empty for Pollux’s liking.

 

“Afternoon folks.” A heavyset woman called out from behind the counter. The hint of gray in her hair shone in the pale light. “Can I get you something to drink?” Pollux strode up to the counter and smiled.

 

“Gladly. Out of curiosity, you wouldn’t happen to have any tea, would you?” He gave her his best disarming smile, but she simply shook her head.

 

“Afraid not, dear. We don’t really get a lot of Sylferdian product these days.” She hummed as he grabbed a glass from below the counter. “Might I recommend our special instead? One of our Hog Shots should wake you right up.”

 

Pollux laughed and shook his head. “Milk will do fine-”

 

“I’ll try your special.” Rose interjected, practically shoving him out of the way. “Milk will do fine for these guys.”

 

“I’ll take a shot too!” Alia said, bouncing on her heels.

 

“No you won’t, you’re underage.” Pollux groaned, as the bartender swiftly poured out three glasses of milk and one vile looking shot of whiskey. He couldn’t believe how quickly she did all that.

 

“You look like a lovely family.” She said with a wistful smile on her lips. “It’s not often we see travelers around here. Not like we used to at least.”

 

Pollux tapped his fingers on the table and let out a hearty chuckle. “I guess we’re a family now, Rose. Does that make you my wife?” She downed the shot the bartender gave her, and then gave Pollux a shot in the arm. “Ow. Truth of the matter is we’re here on business.” She raised her eyebrow in suspicion at the foppish young man. “Have you heard of the Wanderers?”

 

“I’ve heard of wanderers, but I don’t think you’re talking about the same thing, darling.” She clicked her tongue and poured out another shot for Rose, who was somehow already on her fourth. Rose changed her tack when she saw Pollux glaring at her, and quickly changed her choice of drink to water.

 

Glad to finally see some accountability from his party he continued on. “I suppose we aren’t really much of a big deal here in Esseria.” Pollux took a sip of milk, and let the taste linger in his mouth. Definitely cow's milk, nothing to worry about in that regard. “My group is part of the Navahn Church, tasked with handling citizen grievances and peacekeeping affairs worldwide. Though we really haven’t been allowed to operate in Esseria until fairly recently.”

 

The bartender looked confused, but still kept a smile on her face. “So you’re priests?”

 

“Of a sort. I am, and the two girls playing cards over there are.” Pollux said, showing a tattoo of the God of Wind on his hand. “Seyn watches over me, makes sure I’m still around to do her bidding.”

 

“And I’m this idiot’s bodyguard.” Rose said curtly, glaring at her glass of water. “Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid like try and pick a fight with the border patrol.” She sighed. “We thought this little town would be a good place to start, considering its proximity to Sylferde. I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot of me, Miss…?”

 

“Leanna.” She said politely. “It’ll be nice to have some do gooders in this city.”

 

“If you could tell us a few things about the area we’d be much obliged.” Pollux tipped his hat and kept his warm smile.

 

“Gladly.” Leanna tapped her finger to her chin. “This town of Annieum is the largest town in the Akrien Province. We used to be the centre of trade around these parts, but the drought has really hurt us. We used to get a lot of iron shipments from Sylferde and Caeldar to the East, but apparently they’ve been having trouble on those fronts as well.”

 

“So I’ve heard.” Pollux said. “Iron and Coal simply aren’t as abundant as they used to be. All over Sylferde at least, I hear the mines are drying up.”

 

“It’s the same in Caeldar. The place is practically a dead country now. Just a group of bandits. scavengers, and people with nowhere to go.” She wiped off a ring of sweat from the countertop and sighed. “Lots of people have it tough these days.”

 

Pollux nodded, continuing to nurse his drink and make sure the two girls didn’t get into too much trouble. “So how is Duchess Silver handling this drought? As the lord of the province I’d expect her to be under pressure by the Queen to solve this inadequacy?”

 

“I don’t think the duchess has a care in the world honestly. That stuck up tart is content to live out in her mansion and collect taxes all day.” She scowled, as she passed a beer on down the counter. A young girl in a shabby apron passed it to the man firmly entrenched in his newspaper. “Her son is a fine young man though. He’s a real dedicated gentleman. I believe his name was Ren… Rey… uh… it was one of those Sylferdian names that are hard to pronounce.”

 

“Do you mean Renault, perchance?” Pollux confirmed the look of relief on Leanna’s face.

 

“That was it. Actually, the man was just in here a few days ago.” She looked across the room and spoke in a low whisper. “He said that there was a demon in the village south of here, and he was recruiting men to help capture it. I couldn’t believe it at first, but then I remembered the strange rumours I’d hear about that place, considering it’s so close to the Marsh of Lost Souls. Are you going to help them, by chance?”

 

Pollux turned to Rose who gave a knowing smile. Demons rarely ventured north from their territory, so much so that very few humans have actually ever seen a demon first hand. Considering the ways humans react towards them, Pollux could relate somehow to their reclusive nature. However, that in itself wouldn’t have caused any shifts in the world’s balance. Demons were by his understanding, capable of all things humanity were, whether that be virtue or depravity.

 

He shook his head. “If the Lord’s son is gathering up soldiers to capture it, then we have no place in their business. We work to help the common citizenry with the things nobles don’t care or simply can’t afford to deal with. Even if the requests are strange or juvenile.”

 

Leanna looked disheartened in an instant, but quickly wiped that look from her face. “Well, if you’re looking for strange or juvenile, we’ve had our fair share, but I’m not the one you should ask about that.” She gestured to the man thumbing through the paper. “Ol Cobb here has coming in here everyday for the past ten years. He doesn’t say much, but he sees a lot. There’s not a thing in Annieum that he hasn’t heard or read about.”

 

“Much obliged.” He slid two silver coins to the bartender and walked towards to the hunched over man. “Excuse me sir!” The man didn’t respond. He seemed to be lost in thought, as his gaze bore holes into the paper. Pollux walked around to peer at the page, but the man quickly folded it out of his reach.

 

“Whatdya want? Can’t you see I’m busy here, Sylferdian?” He said, clearing the bile from his throat as he did.

 

Pollux scratched his head. “The beautiful lady over there said you know everything about what’s going on around here.”

 

“Beautiful? You really must be blind if you dress like that and think she’s beautiful.” He spat on the ground. “I heard your story, and I’m not interested in letting you damn foreigners walk around like you own the place.” Pollux could smell the ash in his teeth as he spewed his vitriol. “If you really want to help out, you can go get killed in the forest.”

 

He revealed the paper to Pollux, to reveal someone’s photo. The sight was revolting. Pollux grimaced as he glared at the person’s shattered limbs. The person’s head was crushed into a slurry, making it nearly impossible to identify who it was. “Hurry up and die.” He snatched the paper back and continued reading, ignoring Pollux entirely.

 

“May the winds bless you, Cobb.” Pollux said, just loud enough to be heard. The old man grumbled under his breath and let him leave without a fuss. He took a gander across the room, and saw the gentlemen playing poker quickly getting frustrated as the coins were quickly piling up on Alia’s side of the table. He placed his head in his hand and sighed.

 

“And that’s a pair of Kings for me.” Alia said confidently as the river card came up in her favour.

 

“And that’s enough fun for you.” Pollux interjected, “Now give these nice men their money back.” He looked apologetically at the grizzly man who was settling into a cold streak. His face looked like a puppy dog caught in a rainstorm.

 

“She won it fair and square, Pax.” Exia said, kicking her legs underneath the table. “At least let her keep some of it.” Pollux grumbled and took two silver coins out of the pile, and handed them to her. He shoved the rest of the pile to the middle of the table. It wasn’t a large amount of money they were gambling with, but it could buy a week’s worth of food and lodging at a typical inn.

 

“Sorry to interrupt your game, gentlemen, we’ll get out of your hair.” They simply nodded and moved on with their game, seeming more amused by the distraction they brought than angered at the fact a little girl had just read them like a script. He turned to Alia who was humming a merry tune in sync with her sister. “Did you two learn anything?”

 

They chuckled. “This place is just as strange as you thought, Pollux.” Alia said.

 

“Yeah, those three men were woodcutters, but they were called off of their job.”

 

“They said there were horrible monsters in the woods. Nothing like typical animals.”

 

“One of their coworkers was ripped apart. I’ve never heard of any animal that could do that.” The twins kept finishing each other's sentences in sync, but that matched up with the strange photo the old man showed him. Pollux was slowly putting pieces together in his mind, but the puzzle was still full of holes.

 

“Did you hear of anything else?”

 

Exia scratched behind her ear. “Well, it wasn’t something I heard… so much as something I felt.”

 

Pollux gulped. He knew Exia was well in tune with the God of Death, Mahal. As such whenever she had felt something, it represented a soul out of the natural cycle of death and rebirth. “Go on. What did you feel?” He managed his kindest voice.

 

“It kind of sounded like a chant inside of my head. The words were something like, I have failed, I have created calamity, I cannot rest, my soul will suffer eternally. Someone’s soul has lingering resentment which is keeping him tied to this world. The thing is though… it felt like more than one person. Seven… maybe ten. Lots of people, struggling with that same feeling.” She looked pensive. “I think we should be careful around here.”

 

“Hey, I want to help too.” Alia said. Like her sister, she was favoured by a god as well. Ayima, the God of Life chose her. Why Life and Death always seemed to choose twins was beyond Pollux’s understanding, but maybe those higher up in Navahn Church had a clue about that peculiarity. “If there’s a soul that’s out of place, we should put it back in place. That’s our job after all, right?”

 

Pollux cracked a small smile. It was true that they were the group best equipped to handle it. While there were a lot of strange things going on in this town, a soul out of place could cause long lasting damage. Very few people would be any the wiser, and that lingering resentment could poison the area in a fog of malice. Still, the actual exorcism was bound to be an unpleasant affair.

 

Pollux tapped Rose on the shoulder, and she nodded in assent. Waving goodbye to the barkeeper, the four of them left the tavern to plan out their strategy.

 

“So to summarize,” Pollux said, making the explanation as simple as he could for the group “We know that there is a drought going on, there are monsters in the woods capable of ripping people apart, and there is a soul still clinging on to its past life. I want to investigate all of these things, but the most important thing is taking care of that exorcism first.”

 

“I’m more concerned about those creatures in the woods.” Rose said, “But with Alia and Exia here, I think we should go with your plan, Pollux.” She looked up and down the streets of the town, and could only hear the sounds of the wind. “Exia, do you think you can find that soul?”

 

Exia closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to feel the distortion in the air. Her eyes jolted open suddenly, and she suppressed a shiver. She turned to her sister who looked concerned, and gave her a wide smile.

 

“Follow me.” She said, biting her thumb and turned to Pollux. He tilted his head, but she said nothing to him. The four of them walked down the empty streets, heading eastward all the way to the edge of town.

 

A wave of nausea crashed over Pollux suddenly, as he fell to one knee. He laughed solemnly. “We must be close.” The girls gathered close to him and pulled him up. “I felt that one too. How are you holding up, Exia?” He looked at the girl who had gone pale, he face quenched with sweat.

 

“We’re here.” She said, pointing to a fancy building. The place looked like it could have been a hotel given its sheer size. The doors had been barred shut, and the blinds were closed on all three stories.

 

“Looks like an ordinary building to me.” Rose said. She walked up to the front door and knocked. “Might be condemned, but it’s brick and mortar holding the place up. Thing could probably take cannonfire with how thick it is.” She knocked again for emphasis, letting the dull thud echo.

 

“Before we go in, we should get the rest of us over here.” Pollux said, pulling himself up. Never know if we might need some extra muscle.

 

“Not to worry, Master Pollux.” Gill’s familiar voice resounded from behind. The shock made Pollux fall over again. “It seems like fate has ordained our meeting, once again.”

 

He looked up at the man, who was dangling a key by a golden chain. “So this is our base of operations?” Pollux laughed. “It seems like fate has a sense of humour after all.”

 

Ankerdal and Luevin helped to pull Pollux up, and shared a laugh at his expense. “Gotta watch your step, boss.” The bronze Ankerdal said, “never know when a tumbleweed will knock you down.” He laughed again, clapping Pollux on the back.

 

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” Pollux said. “How much did this run us, Gill?”

 

Gill had a long hearty laugh. “They couldn’t wait to get rid of this building at the municipal office, they told us ten thousand would be enough to buy it outright. So of course, I have the deed as well.” He gestured to Luevin who pulled out a document affixed with lines and lines of text, and a gaudy stallion seal pressed in the middle.

 

“Guess we’re real estate tycoons, now.” Pollux laughed. “Did they tell you why the place was so cheap?”

 

“They were secretive about that. I figure whatever the issue was, we could handle it.” Gill said with the utmost confidence. “I didn’t tell you I’d be here though, why are you here so soon?”

 

Pollux laughed. “This is our first job. We weren’t strictly hired to handle it, but it’s in our best interest to deal with this immediately.” His eyes narrowed. “There are several souls still lingering here. They haven’t returned and we need to find out why, and return them to the proper cycle of life and death once again.”

 

Guillaume groaned. “An exorcism, then.” He grabbed Pollux by the shoulder and squeezed. “Just be careful you idiot. Ankerdal, Luevin and I will be able to restrain you if need be.”

 

Pollux laughed. “I like how you’re volunteering me for this.”

 

“You’re the only one who can take the strain without losing their mind. I’d ask you to be cautious, but I know you don’t know the meaning of the word.”

 

“Hey, you’re the one who bought a haunted building, this is hardly my fault. Do you want to do business with apparitions?” Pollux took in his blank expression and laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He looked down at the twins who seemed to have calmed down. They were especially sensitive to pockets of malice, and it was strong enough here to knock him over.

 

“Alright, let’s find out what’s going on in here.” He rubbed Alia and Exia’s heads. “You two ready for this?”

 

Alia shouted in excitement while Exia simply nodded her head. The rest of the group moved in close as Pollux placed his hand on the steel handle, and breached the interior.

-Chapter End-

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So some mental health stuff popped up right around when I had a big test and in the chaos I met someone. Haven't done much writing at all. Think at some point I'll squeeze what I can out of November and do what I did last year and finish it super late. :p

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Not going to hit the threshold this year unfortunately.

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I started writing again. Going with a different approach. Trying to make it more isolated and dark. Basically a student being stuck for extended periods of time with his thoughts and nothing more.

 

I have a first chapter and a prologue. Would anyone be willing to read it and share their thoughts on the style? I want to have a definitive and set approach before I get into the business of typing my fingers off.

Edited by OSUViking

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