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Nov. 6th, 2013 04:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmxratedBeen working on some midstory chapters for Starbound and revising the outline this past week, but am only doing a little bit of writing each morning at this point. I've remembered this fic I read months ago, called StarCrossed, and I've been unable to stop thinking about it.
Mom just saw me laying on my bed a few minutes ago, and asked if I was feeling depressed, and I told her. She suggested that I write my own fic in which the girls go back in time to make the right decisions, similar to this movie called Run, Lola, Run.
I gotta say, I don't really have the will to think up new stories when I'm trying to focus on the one I've already got my heart set on. That's why I'm writing about this here.
Basically, the fic is all about some very poor decisions that the four main characters have made, and the prices they are paying. Kagami has quit her job at a law firm thinking that she'll find another one to apply to, has been gambling on stocks even before then, loses all her money, begins prostituting herself, and ends up ruining her reputation as the most accomplished daughter of the Hiiragi family and having to settle for working at a cash register for someone her mother knows. And she's the best off out of her friends. Tsukasa has been a chronic failure at her job, is mocked endlessly, falls ill from stress, ends up bound to a hospital bed, and dies after beating her head against the bedframe. Konata has been plagiarizing works as a manga artist, receives a letter calling her out for it, tries to kill herself so that she wouldn't have to face her father, Soujiro, when he finds out, accidentally kills Patricia when she tries to stop her, and kills Soujiro when he comes home, hoping to end it all before moving to Kyoto and getting arrested a week later. And Miyuki has been in an abusive arranged marriage, goes out to look for work, and leaves her two baby daughters home when their babysitter is indisposed. Said daughters end up setting the house on fire and dying in it, and she ends her own life by jumping out of a building.
So what even brought this up? The Starbound arc I've been working on involves the downfall of this group called the Hunt Club, which is a secret club in Ryouou High School whose mission is to drive otaku and other cliques they deem unworthy out of that school through hazing. Said group originated from this other fic called Bonds, though only in backstory, and I found it an interesting idea to draw parallels between it and the Ku Klux Klan (and particularly how the latter's second incarnation was brought down in 1946 by The Adventures of Superman). However, the fact that everyone in it will be going to prison (just like Konata in SC) and will have little to look forward to is what makes it depressing, but only because one of them not only had a change in heart and ratted on the club's president, but was the only one given a real chance to do so. The rest of them were most likely under pressure to remain in the club or else become a target.
Now, you're probably wondering what even possessed me to read something like that. Basically, I was testing myself to see how depressing a fic I can handle, after having read the second chapter of yet another fic called No Birds, No Bees. I can take depressiveness in general; everyone has to be, if they're to be cut out for anything other than Pokemon or Disney. One time brought the topic in general up with Mom, and she told me that there was this book she liked, called All the Pretty Horses, which featured a whole myriad of heartrending themes, but there was also this movie that she and Dad had to turn off after the first minute or so, since it began with someone being raped.
Also brought it up with Chelle, and she said that if something's bothering me on end, I should just put it behind me, saying also that that's the only way she was able to stop thinking about Shinzo.
For the record, I still do intend to keep the whole Hunt Club arc and continue writing to it, mainly because there are canon characters to the franchise that I would like to have appear in the fic. This time that the main characters will be spending back home in Japan is obviously the best time for them to do so, and without anything really going on there, they will have very little purpose. (Of course, the storyline itself wouldn't have much of one in and of itself, but I've arranged for it to be one of six things leading up to something bigger.) Bloodscorpion88, author of Bonds, has also expressed interest in the arc when I asked her about how the club works in her story. To alleviate things, though, I do plan on having several of the girls mention how much they pity any members who might actually have changed their ways under the right circumstances like that one guy did.
Mom just saw me laying on my bed a few minutes ago, and asked if I was feeling depressed, and I told her. She suggested that I write my own fic in which the girls go back in time to make the right decisions, similar to this movie called Run, Lola, Run.
I gotta say, I don't really have the will to think up new stories when I'm trying to focus on the one I've already got my heart set on. That's why I'm writing about this here.
Basically, the fic is all about some very poor decisions that the four main characters have made, and the prices they are paying. Kagami has quit her job at a law firm thinking that she'll find another one to apply to, has been gambling on stocks even before then, loses all her money, begins prostituting herself, and ends up ruining her reputation as the most accomplished daughter of the Hiiragi family and having to settle for working at a cash register for someone her mother knows. And she's the best off out of her friends. Tsukasa has been a chronic failure at her job, is mocked endlessly, falls ill from stress, ends up bound to a hospital bed, and dies after beating her head against the bedframe. Konata has been plagiarizing works as a manga artist, receives a letter calling her out for it, tries to kill herself so that she wouldn't have to face her father, Soujiro, when he finds out, accidentally kills Patricia when she tries to stop her, and kills Soujiro when he comes home, hoping to end it all before moving to Kyoto and getting arrested a week later. And Miyuki has been in an abusive arranged marriage, goes out to look for work, and leaves her two baby daughters home when their babysitter is indisposed. Said daughters end up setting the house on fire and dying in it, and she ends her own life by jumping out of a building.
So what even brought this up? The Starbound arc I've been working on involves the downfall of this group called the Hunt Club, which is a secret club in Ryouou High School whose mission is to drive otaku and other cliques they deem unworthy out of that school through hazing. Said group originated from this other fic called Bonds, though only in backstory, and I found it an interesting idea to draw parallels between it and the Ku Klux Klan (and particularly how the latter's second incarnation was brought down in 1946 by The Adventures of Superman). However, the fact that everyone in it will be going to prison (just like Konata in SC) and will have little to look forward to is what makes it depressing, but only because one of them not only had a change in heart and ratted on the club's president, but was the only one given a real chance to do so. The rest of them were most likely under pressure to remain in the club or else become a target.
Now, you're probably wondering what even possessed me to read something like that. Basically, I was testing myself to see how depressing a fic I can handle, after having read the second chapter of yet another fic called No Birds, No Bees. I can take depressiveness in general; everyone has to be, if they're to be cut out for anything other than Pokemon or Disney. One time brought the topic in general up with Mom, and she told me that there was this book she liked, called All the Pretty Horses, which featured a whole myriad of heartrending themes, but there was also this movie that she and Dad had to turn off after the first minute or so, since it began with someone being raped.
Also brought it up with Chelle, and she said that if something's bothering me on end, I should just put it behind me, saying also that that's the only way she was able to stop thinking about Shinzo.
For the record, I still do intend to keep the whole Hunt Club arc and continue writing to it, mainly because there are canon characters to the franchise that I would like to have appear in the fic. This time that the main characters will be spending back home in Japan is obviously the best time for them to do so, and without anything really going on there, they will have very little purpose. (Of course, the storyline itself wouldn't have much of one in and of itself, but I've arranged for it to be one of six things leading up to something bigger.) Bloodscorpion88, author of Bonds, has also expressed interest in the arc when I asked her about how the club works in her story. To alleviate things, though, I do plan on having several of the girls mention how much they pity any members who might actually have changed their ways under the right circumstances like that one guy did.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-16 01:04 pm (UTC)Don't mention it, show it. The steering forces of the club should have to be total jerks, otherwise it would've collapsed already, but supporting members could be shown to hesitate, or to let someone walk, or speak up when the others go too far, or refuse to participate in things that cross the line. If the protagonists express pity for those members because they've seen the potential, it makes sense.
WARNING: Contains a spoiler
Date: 2019-07-16 01:06 pm (UTC)You did say before that while remorse is the key to redemption, it can wait to be triggered by some event or another before it happens, if I recall correctly. I've even read BS88's other fics (one of which is still in progress), and certain characters clearly lack remorse for their actions until something nobody expects by that point happens. Certain members are likely already feeling bad about the stuff they've done, but if Rokuna weren't to find out that her own long-lost brother has been a member, Katsuo might very well continue participating in the club's activities without a second thought.
In any case, I suppose we could discuss adding such stuff as you suggested in when we cross that bridge. You did say before that you'd rather wait until I actually reach a given point in the fic before reading the actual chapters, but if you'd like to make an exception now or at any point in the future, I'll be glad to show you whatever I've got.
Re: WARNING: Contains a spoiler
Date: 2019-07-16 01:08 pm (UTC)Before remorse comes the potential for remorse, which works to make it credible to the audience and not feel like a cop-out. Those girls just traveled the war stricken world, to feel sympathy for petty bullies at this point would need some justification.
You did say before that you'd rather wait until I actually reach a given point in the fic before reading the actual chapters,
Meant there'd not be much point in beta-reading. Anyway, maybe later but not right now, I have a backlog of stuff to catch up with.
Certain members are likely already feeling bad about the stuff they've done,
Yeah and I told you to to show that. It's not the audience's job to presume that if you want it known, or assume it on base of being told.
Re: WARNING: Contains a spoiler
Date: 2019-07-16 01:08 pm (UTC)Right now, it is possible that I might not even bother having them sympathize with anyone after all, since it wasn't something I planned on originally. Or should I?
Re: WARNING: Contains a spoiler
Date: 2019-07-16 01:09 pm (UTC)