I’m supposed to be writing already having completed my plotting on Tuesday. Since I didn’t complete that I’m not writing today. I’m tempted to put fingers to keys to see where the story goes, but I won’t. Instead I’ll do the work.
For those of you not privy to my brain or office my first week will revive a brief mech motivated entry from December 2007: https://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20071222/day-119-armburster/
I keep coming back to making the character of “Doc” be the mysterious antagonist. Which I then resist in various ways. Then counter. I’m starting to realize how much I prefer situations, events, or formless monsters to be the baddies than primary characters.
It makes sense in a 1000 word piece that the bad guy would be there all along. All the motivations I come up with are thinner than I’d like to use. I don’t want accidental or coerced badness. I want dead-on purposeful seeking your death or destruction badness.
Regardless of the badness vector I’ve arrived at an event path that goes something like this: Armburster tests the XO and is surprisingly impressed and visibly enthusiastic about the results; they tuck it away for the night and return to testing the following day, early in that testing a virus locks up the XO’s controls and takes over to a great degree (Arm has some control but very little). I need to determine what happens next. Comic book style structural rampage to highlight the XO’s capabilities? Specific target seeking quest? A vendetta or a robbery?
What’s the ending? Does The Antag relent and power down the virus? Is Arm forced to sacrifice the XO and himself for the greater good? Maybe Arm is able to re-take the XO and stop the Antag?
Let’s say there is no virus. The Antag takes a hostage and coerces Arm to do bad things with the XO. Thus Arm is using his skills to protect one person at the disperse expense of others. None of these really attacks his self-concept unless I change that concept a bit. Maybe he is aloof and less caring more selfish? Nah. I think I’ll stick with a straight hero and just work a better angle.
Testing occurs on a specific planet consisting of the proper gravity or terrain. Arm is the lead tester but soon other pilots will be on planet and in danger. Or able to suit up themselves. Arm’s brought a daughter or son or a wife or hooked up with a civilian contractor taken hostage. So we’re on a remote planet. What could The Antag want to accomplish? Straight robbery? Capture of a highly placed local political figure? If it’s Doc then it would be knowledge of some sort.
Day 412
