More Original Work musings
Jul. 23rd, 2011 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luciazephyrOkay, so this is going to be a post entirely about my original fiction concept from way back in this post, about the modern fantasy thing with the Scholars and Alistair and his friends? Yeah. I have a fuck ton more of this figured out now and I need to write this all down where I won't lose it.
The basic concept is this: Everyone has a bit of magic from somewhere. Alistair and his ilk has a strong blood line that gifts them with the ability to change the world around them. Some, like Donovan1, are half-human, half-Other, and have abilities from there. Everyone in the world has the power to the use magic. As far as the Magical Community can figure out, someone far far far in the past was the origin of that power for most humans (someone? something?).
The thing is, while everyone has the potential, but only a very small percentage of the population does. Only this small group of people hold all the knowledge of how to learn magic, and it's all word-of-mouth. Nothing is written down, as it's dangerous to let these techniques and teachings fall into the hands of someone unscrupulous. (It's as shady as it sounds.)
Out of the already-exclusive magic community there are Scholars, who are allowed and encouraged to research and experiment and learn as much as they can. They are the archives of the community. Each of them are held to a Code of Scholars, bound by oath to follow the rules.
Alistair is one such Scholar. He's about 200-300 years old (he's not sure himself) and was selected at birth to be a Scholar. It's all he's ever known. He's extremely powerful, but isolated. He only interacts with the world around him when he has to. He likes peace to work in. When something threatens that peace, he disposes of it and gets back to work.
One such threat is a restless spirit possessing patients of the Richards Family Health Practice. Wanting to get rid of it before it gets powerful and becomes a problem, Alistair walks in, exorcises it, and leaves.
Only someone saw him. Tracy Richards, next in line to take over her family's practice, witnesses Alistair work and her life is changed irrevocably. Convinced of the existence of the supernatural, she quits med school and, supported by her family's wealth, goes hunting for the man she saw that night.
A year later, Tracy breaks into Alistair's home, having finally found the man she'd been looking for. But, how? Alistair is intensely private, has cloaked his house with magic and has warded every entrance. Yet this woman shows up, claiming the bathroom window was unlocked.
Another thing about magic: It's conductive. When magic affect you, it's because it's connected to your own magic. The more power you have, the more it affects you. Thus is why nominally gifted people don't know about magic. So long as they are oblivious, they cannot build up their power, and they're weaker and less susceptible.
Tracy has known about magic and the supernatural for a year. Yet she walks right through Alistair's wards, not even feeling them. Because she is, as far as Alistair can tell, the only person in the world utterly devoid of magic. When common knowledge says "Every living thing has magic," Tracy is the exception that proves the rule.
Being curious about magical matters is Alistair's profession. So rather than driving her away like he would any other person, he is fascinated with her. He wants to study her, to figure out what about this person is special. Her family has the normal amount of uninformed magic, there were no weird circumstances in her life, nothing significant has ever happened to her (sans the life-changing run-in with Alistair). Yet, she has no magic and is thus effectively invincible to supernatural attacks. (For example, trying to get something to work on her, Alistair casts a "turn blue" spell at her. All her clothes change color. She does not.)
Their relationship is platonic and one of mutual fascination. Alistair is the first strange thing to happen in Tracy's life. Tracy is the one thing Alistair cannot figure out. Their relationship is the driving force of the story. Because Tracy wants to learn more, he works with her, investigating supernatural happenings. It lets Alistair study her and hey, if she happens to die in the middle of this dangerous work, then he can hopefully figure out her weirdness with an autopsy. Everyone wins!
There is also the matter of Donovan1, but I'm not through figuring him out yet.
1- "Donovan" is a placeholder name. I have still no idea what to call the half-human friendly hedonistic assassin guy. No clue.
Going to see Captain America now, mmkay.
The basic concept is this: Everyone has a bit of magic from somewhere. Alistair and his ilk has a strong blood line that gifts them with the ability to change the world around them. Some, like Donovan1, are half-human, half-Other, and have abilities from there. Everyone in the world has the power to the use magic. As far as the Magical Community can figure out, someone far far far in the past was the origin of that power for most humans (someone? something?).
The thing is, while everyone has the potential, but only a very small percentage of the population does. Only this small group of people hold all the knowledge of how to learn magic, and it's all word-of-mouth. Nothing is written down, as it's dangerous to let these techniques and teachings fall into the hands of someone unscrupulous. (It's as shady as it sounds.)
Out of the already-exclusive magic community there are Scholars, who are allowed and encouraged to research and experiment and learn as much as they can. They are the archives of the community. Each of them are held to a Code of Scholars, bound by oath to follow the rules.
Alistair is one such Scholar. He's about 200-300 years old (he's not sure himself) and was selected at birth to be a Scholar. It's all he's ever known. He's extremely powerful, but isolated. He only interacts with the world around him when he has to. He likes peace to work in. When something threatens that peace, he disposes of it and gets back to work.
One such threat is a restless spirit possessing patients of the Richards Family Health Practice. Wanting to get rid of it before it gets powerful and becomes a problem, Alistair walks in, exorcises it, and leaves.
Only someone saw him. Tracy Richards, next in line to take over her family's practice, witnesses Alistair work and her life is changed irrevocably. Convinced of the existence of the supernatural, she quits med school and, supported by her family's wealth, goes hunting for the man she saw that night.
A year later, Tracy breaks into Alistair's home, having finally found the man she'd been looking for. But, how? Alistair is intensely private, has cloaked his house with magic and has warded every entrance. Yet this woman shows up, claiming the bathroom window was unlocked.
Another thing about magic: It's conductive. When magic affect you, it's because it's connected to your own magic. The more power you have, the more it affects you. Thus is why nominally gifted people don't know about magic. So long as they are oblivious, they cannot build up their power, and they're weaker and less susceptible.
Tracy has known about magic and the supernatural for a year. Yet she walks right through Alistair's wards, not even feeling them. Because she is, as far as Alistair can tell, the only person in the world utterly devoid of magic. When common knowledge says "Every living thing has magic," Tracy is the exception that proves the rule.
Being curious about magical matters is Alistair's profession. So rather than driving her away like he would any other person, he is fascinated with her. He wants to study her, to figure out what about this person is special. Her family has the normal amount of uninformed magic, there were no weird circumstances in her life, nothing significant has ever happened to her (sans the life-changing run-in with Alistair). Yet, she has no magic and is thus effectively invincible to supernatural attacks. (For example, trying to get something to work on her, Alistair casts a "turn blue" spell at her. All her clothes change color. She does not.)
Their relationship is platonic and one of mutual fascination. Alistair is the first strange thing to happen in Tracy's life. Tracy is the one thing Alistair cannot figure out. Their relationship is the driving force of the story. Because Tracy wants to learn more, he works with her, investigating supernatural happenings. It lets Alistair study her and hey, if she happens to die in the middle of this dangerous work, then he can hopefully figure out her weirdness with an autopsy. Everyone wins!
There is also the matter of Donovan1, but I'm not through figuring him out yet.
1- "Donovan" is a placeholder name. I have still no idea what to call the half-human friendly hedonistic assassin guy. No clue.
Going to see Captain America now, mmkay.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 01:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 04:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 02:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 04:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 02:44 am (UTC)Did Captain America bore you as much as it did me? XD
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 03:12 am (UTC)It.... yeah, pretty much. I enjoyed everything from before he got the serum, but after that, IDGAF really until Nick Fury showed up again.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 05:06 am (UTC)Oh, wait.
So yeah, I guess I have given up on expecting anything in the mainstream to not be chokingly sexist from the premise outwards AND boring as well. Until then, I need to stop going to non-vetted movies.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 05:13 am (UTC)But the Watsonian answer is twofold: The serum was funded and owned by the US, thus would never be given to a non-citizen. Also, Peggy's gender is a big issue, one the movie didn't address enough but hinted at. In that era, there was no way she'd be allowed in combat.
(Actually, my suspension of disbelief was tested the most when the Manly Men let her fight in the big finale. I am so stunned Tommy Lee Jones' character didn't immediately sideline her.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 05:20 am (UTC)So a little ways in I was all 'DEAR GOD I WANT TO BEAT THIS WRITER TO DEATH WITH A COPY OF REQUIEM FOR A WREN' and then M told me later that no, the US hadn't had female soldiers at the time - but as you pointed out, Peggy ain't American, so that's not really a big deal for her, right? XD
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 05:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 05:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 05:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 06:00 am (UTC)Which reminds me, I should be able to get to the next part of the bakery au tomorrow, no problem.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 04:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 09:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 04:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-26 07:25 am (UTC)Was there a different name before Donovan?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-26 12:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-26 04:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-26 05:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-26 08:26 pm (UTC)It's not a joke - it's a literary shout-out. ^.-