Terminus leaves me with three stories thus far. I think I can make one a major—I think I have to make one a major. Or maybe I mean main. In any case the other two seem to have some significance as well.
I have the story of the mysterious young girl who adopts the name Partly Cloudy Sky and rides along with Cpt. Munro and her first mate Mr. Cameron.
I have the story of Engineer Coffee and his struggle with Admiral Wu to relocate their base of operations and machine shop to a better locale.
And I have the story of tourist-traders Bogdan and Cyril doing no more than wandering Terminus and taking pictures of each other.
Something about this feels very cultural in scope. The adventure comes down to peoples liking or hating each other more than it comes down to individuals accomplishing personal goals. Though the peoples will be effected by the individuals.
I’ve got free fliers and I’ve got the military. There is a real friction between the two groups. The military considers them in their plans, but the free-fliers only think of the military as a natural force to be avoided or ridden out.
I keep coming back to something being over the mountains. Some group or person on the outside who wants in to Terminus. That Terminus must overcome its internal squabbles, unite, and oppose this outside force. But maybe it’s not. Maybe there is enough tension between the fliers and the walkers that these groups must hack it out with each other first. Potentially someone discovers a better use for the flying-rods than flying. So my ‘natural resource’ provides a source of conflict. That makes a surprising amount of sense.
I’ve thought this before, and I’ve avoided thinking about it too hard. The trouble I have with making this flying-rod thing too critical is that I can’t sort out how it wouldn’t have been critical sooner than later. And this is fairly later. It could be that things just take time, or that one group finds a new use for the rods or a way to use the rods better.
366words on day 608