Sorry for being away for so long. I spent some days in «collaborative zombie» mode at collegue. Web servers work again, IRC channel has an extra integrity layer, and a content management for edics and announcements has been integrated. It's just that I don't
remember how I did it, let alone if it was me who did it.
Way a way to spend my birthday...
So, about the questions, I have some stupid answers for them...
What do you hate most in fan-fictions?
Blatant and ridiculous OOCness, of course, it gets on my nerves. Blatant OOCness
alone, on the other hand, I think I can handle. Also I greatly dislike when a potentially interesting idea
out-of-universe is exposed but never explored. Like, you know, Darth Tyrannus says "Hey, Master, why don't we also try our powers in the filed of
telemarketing, for a change?" but then it never happens (yes, I
know that would go WAAAAAY OOC, but it was just an example). Like essentially it makes me feel I am being baited and that I am nothing more that an extra point for the "Views" statistic.
I also hate hate HATE when ff authors write a battle and don't give the defining blast/cut/summon/whatever the appropiate exposition. Things like, "Goku screamed 'Kamehameha'! and then the planet exploded. Everyone died but they were revived again anyways -- sans the bad guys, as it always happens; and people would have not a clue how close were their collective asses to be turned into subatomical dust, so they lived happily thereafter. The end."
Going to the line of romance, there are not explicit thing I straight hate, but I guess I really don't like when "romance" is thrown into a story in a very "down-to-Earth" way. For me, romance in a story is about the feeling the characters have and how they act about it in defining moments, how acts of heroism are inspired by the melodious voice of a woman, and how the hero chooses to remain in his homeland because it was a sacred place his/her parents died together fighting for. I definitively don't need to know that the story's lead (or beta) couple have been living together in an apartment since one month ago and thay they're having an argument right now, about what kind of crockery or tableware of any sort are they going to buy. That's common, completely expectable, and quite dull
everyday's life, so for that I have
people's families, including sometimes
my own.
Heh, I suggest Astinus an idea thread where you can get your ideas critique, like the one in Serebii, but she said the people can do that in the lounge here. So far no one is doing that...:X
That's because you (yes, me too) all LOVE offtopicness here... I mean, come on, orgy, Sentrets, pimpy Lugias and all... :D
So...
Want an idea to discuss? Want an idea to laught at? Well I'll soon post one.
NO!!! IT SHALL BE.... TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111 :laugh:
When I do fanfiction, I end up expanding so much in backstory that it becomes a story on its own. So to prevent it from going wild again in my head, I have to write it down. I did. I've already been planning for some time and actually some chapters are already written, albeit quite loosely. Actually, due to services provided in the line of Intertubes Duty, I have been
ordered suggested by
Dark Lord of the Sith AC Coda X Scarlet Weather to have it handed to him for BR, but I thought it would be interesting to post it here for a little bit of extra examination.
Pokémon-fandom, mainly non-canon region, Legendaries as in "Legend", PG-15 or maybe PG-17, depending on how violent do battles turn out, a bit of romance, a bit of comedy, but mostly battles, not the Tournament kind.
The basic idea is that of an Organization, kinda like a secret society, formed by Trainers, Watchers and the like, who are willing to protect specific ruins scattered across the World with more
direct force than other like the Pokémon Rangers would do. What these landmarks are and why they protect them is someting they keep for themselves-- to the public opinion, they are the "ruin zealots" who sixty years ago rebelled against a corporate government and reached the point of offering their services to the neighbor, almost-enemy country/region.
This group is actually the newest iteration of the organization that was disbanded generations ago, and its purpose is different from the previous group although both are connected to the ruins they protect. Currently the group and its four members siphon resources from a wider and more public organization with similar alignment.
The Organization is led by Lead Female Character who remains in the shadows, she is known to the other members, but remains hidden to the outside world and the audience. Two of the members of this Organization, Boy and Girl1, have been spending some time together because of the tassks they are assigned to, as in this Organization, members work and travel in pairs like in Akatsuki, but for a different reason. Of course that menas that Girl2 feels a bit unfair that she has to always go with the Leader (or worse, alone).
In time, Boy and Girl have begun seeing each other in a different light, openly intending to learn more from each other and attain a closer relationship than one of "clanship". But not only they have their hands full with family, collegue and secret society; their Pokémon won't let them do anyways-- actually (*
twist twist*) it is the members' Pokémon, beginning with the Leader's Starter, who
run the organization instead of the humans, who are there to allow Pokémon to operate in a world where transportation, trade and commerce are designed for
humans to handle. Not that humans don't know they are being "manipulated"; rather, they believe it is them who genuinely came up with the ideal and that their Pokémon happily and naively follow.
As tasks such as terminating a group of poachers that local LEOs don't want to deal with, or prevent a team of explorers from discovering a specific cave during the filming of their documentary become more difficult, a strain is put on the Organization. So the Leader('s Pokémon) decides fresh blood is needed to and definitively revive the Organization. One of the members then offers to manipulate a public system of community service for Trainers (let's call it a "Social Board" for Trainers) so that they can use it and study potential prospects. To that end, a sort of "contest" is organized where willing Trainers will have to provide specific services tailored to measure specific capabilities.
Of course, the Pokémon of the Organization decide they have to step in and make sure
they are the ones who get to judge whether Guest Character A, B or C are fit to the organization's One True Secret Purpose, while keeping the humans thinking that they are the ones who make the choices. But... why would random Pokémon gather and bring their Trainers along to follow That One True Purpose? Maybe it is a legend that links the birth of their homeland to a specific group of Pokémon to their species, who long ago offered their help to a God. And, as with all legends, that legend may, or may not, have some truth in it.
----
There. Something to think about. I can expand on it more, of course, depending on interest shown and what is needed, and it will help me rewrite one thing or two to begin the story with the right foot.
The "
Pokémon are the actual cabal" thing is the one little particular twist that I want to work on and expand, maybe to make it the trait that separates my story from (
part of) the rest.
The romance between the two specific characters and the siphoning from a larger organization are some of the elements that I work on that will use to have some of the mechanics of the Organization explored: how do they keep in touch, if they have particular markings or manners, how are new members recruited, why are their Pokémon on the lead, things like that.