Writer's Notes: The Insanity Behind the Insanity

Writing fight scenes to Judy Garland tunes. Told you I'm weird ;^D

Damn it, they keep tearing into each other too much, too much blood; they'll kill each other halfway through. More violence, less cutting-up. Words like crush and smash and shatter and splat, LoL. I like "splat", it's one of my favorite words ^_^ *giggly* SPLAAAAT!

Also looking through my lingual notes; I'd hate to screw up something I previously established.

Brin is too nice for her own damn good; I'm gonna leave her behind, leave her at the door--she doesn't know, doesn't want to know, what 'Leena and Baraka are up to. "It's gettin' hot in here, so take off all your clothes..." *BOUNCE*

Now that's entertainment >^D Oh, don't fret so, it's clean mostly, little of this and that, then cue end the scene. Except for later on, whence they really get to it >^D

*Warbles along* "Oh, the plot can be hot, simply teeming with sex..." AMEN >^D

Fucking thing. Being fucking difficult. Stupid fucking Blaze get your shit together asshole!!!!!! *Hyperventilates* >^F

He comes off gaybo. Although I want him to that way, like the villains in Sailor Moon--and vain and evil and yet good looking. But right now he's like "wtf?" Maybe because I dunno what to do with him.

(Uhh, no offense to Sailor Moon btw, as I'm a fan myself, but come on! You gotta admit the villains are really light in the loafers ^^; )

The main idea behind him is his hairdo, which is on fire--more accurately he has fire for hair. So of course he's a pyro. >^D He has tears tattooed on his face and a Mandarin outfit; he has a hook-chain that "flames on" just like the Human Torch kinda thing. Yeah. Fuck yeah. That's cool. ^_^

*Does Beavis impression* Fire fire fire! Mm-hehe-hehehehehe, she said FIRE, meh-hehehe-huh! *end impression*

Shimmer is the other badguy, BEWARE the Sue ;^D Her hair is silver, like blue silver shit that just gleams, diamond-like. She has a tattoo--crescent moon with dots beneath it under her eye. Her power is over light; she can fold light up, use it like a lightsaber or a lazer, cut shit up with it.

She has bangles, diamond-edge bangles which she hots up and throws. She can also use darkness--cause blindness of both light and dark varieties, make stuff or herself invisible, and make false duplicates of herself using the speed of light. (Like how the "sun" we see is actually the sun about ten minutes ago, because light moves only so fast relative to the earth.)

Of the two, the one with it all together is Blaze, although Shimmer is the one who seems to come through at first; they coax all the fighters into the Tower of Traps, just like in 80's cartoons when I was ickle, wheee! with the mighty heroes facing off against odds worse than death, only nobody ever dies, and the villains come back swearing to "get them next time!" ^_^

Broken down, the teamups are:

Shao Kahn, Rayden and Shang Tsung (vs. Noob and each other, trying to get into the fortress)

Kitana, Liu and Kung Lao (vs. Shimmer, trying to get into the Fortress)

Johnny, Sonya, and Purza (vs. Blaze, trying to get into the Fortress)

Jax and Mileena (vs. Noob and each other, trying to get out of the Fortress)

Noob and Tryndregan (raisin' hell and making life difficult for everyone else)

ALSO: those that travel directly through the Mirror are acclimated to the poisonous air around them. Reveal that in the scene with Jax.

They're on an empty vista with the Nightmare City beneath them; the Nightmare Tower, Noob Saibot's stronghold in this world, at the other side.

Then Johnny n' Sonya n' Purza against Blaze and Company.

Then Jax n' Mileena, almost reaching a truce.

Then Tryndregan n' Noob; Tryndregan reports on what she's seen, and we get a taste of the Big Three not getting along, also reveal more of Noob's longtime rivalry with Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn.

Then Noob n' Shimmer Interlude.

Then Liu n' Lao n' Kitana against Shimmer and Company, her style being more elusive and less dramatic than Blaze's. Cue the beastie things :^D

Then the Big Three belatedly arrive, having fought off one of Shimmer's "pets". (A really NASTY beastie thing, kinda the big brother of the other ones.)

Which was a seperate idea that I had, that there are these shadow-wolf-raven beasts that she summons, which are really a projection of fear and mistrust and similar icky things. :^)

Can't have her doing too much straightforward ass-kicking, really; that's Blaze's job. So this is a handy way to get around that. It also avoids her summoning bunches of the thugs Blaze has got. Keeps them from being too similar...

So. Anyway.

Buh...Static-X making it difficult to concentrate...*switches to Cher* That's better ;^) *sings* Do you beliiieeeeve in life after love?

Umm. ^^;

So. Now we've got all that action going on; I love action scenes, lotsa fighting. Yay for adrenaline! This ought to go pretty quick actually, took me less than half an hour to get the Blaze scene written up, once I knew what to do with it.

Today's Big Lesson, guys and gals: When in doubt, make 'em fight. ^_^

Telsor, more lessoning. Setup about the corral--fighting outside for a change ;^) Also for desc. purposes of how they live. They're now all fighting with each other instead of with him. One day out on the corral, Brin's unit and hers cross paths, principally for descriptive/character reasons. Fuzzy yet. Possibly will trim, else will let them confront indoors or something.

More rivalry with Mouseballs (Koteth, name means "alienation"). He's jockeying for Longhair's old standing, whereas she has the right to it. He does not at all like being refused by her, first as associates and then in the more aggressive, sexual way. Yeah, all the Nomad men are ballers LoL ;^p

The femmes are twice as bad: scene with Ismar and the Amazon Twins, Kara and Lara. Mileena: "Am I the only one who notices that their names rhyme?" She "rescues" him from "a fate worse than death." This is appreciated by Telsor. Cue instant movement up the ranks. ;^) This being so that she can use her increased water-rations to buy favors later on.

Their first real mission. Sends Ismar and Leena, with Leena saving Ismar's ass. That's a rapid commendation for her. Which Mouseballs doesn't like. Not that he can do anything about it; Brin gets in his way. Which/see is the start of her and Leena being on closer terms. In bandaging Leena from her most recent scrape with Koteth is when Brin learns the truth of who she is.

THE SCENE finally occurs. Brin is depressed and circumspect enough to leave herself at the door ;^)

Now, I dunno what. To Be Continued I suppose. No no, wait: this is all part of Tanya's plan, Tanya and SHINNOK'S plan. Which is actually to find Kitana, and crush the entire mutant race, and make Mileena suffer, all in one neat little package. THEN To Be Continued ^_^

Thought for the day: since when was a computer considered a necessary school-supply? A default homework tool? o_O Christ I'm old, LoL. Jeebus almighty.

Basically re-working what I've already got. Smoothing out the mechanics, deciding what goes where, and what should and shouldn't be said, and by whom.

For instance, originally the fights in the practice yard were all in-diary retrospectives. That kind of by-character reflection is great for certain things, like Mileena's bond with Kitana, which has to have that dreamlike, slightly distanced feel to it. It's awful for other things: fight scenes being one of them ;^)

It kind of makes dialogue difficult as well, although that can be cut and the commentary that the viewpoint character includes in it can be highly useful. It's just more difficult and not really recommended (based on my experience).

And Mileena and Baraka getting together again. Doesn't matter how hard I tried, that one just didn't work as a retrospective. I can't quite put my finger on why--although it robs the scene of its immediacy--its "happening right NOW"-ness. Which is important in that scene for a number of reasons >;^)

Brin's still "off"; reaction in the initial scene is still warped. Could be she's not used to playing spy games ;^) Ought to have Leena notice that. Like "What's she keep looking at me for? Particularly with Tanya sitting there? --Everyone else is getting an eyeful, including those she-beasts by the stairwell." Something like that, just because I'm a taskmaster.

Tanya's chemistry is dead-ringer with Mileena's, but it's "off" with Brin. On the other hand, if I make Tanya look any further down her nose, she'll fall flat on her face. So I'll let it alone.

And--my betas brought this up--what, exactly, is the diary for? It ought to tie up into the plot somehow, in some major way; as bait? Perhaps. 'Leena is highly protective of it, she seems to think that it holds a key to the larger puzzle...

The larger puzzle being the entire Outworld situation: Reptile in command, experimenting with necromancy. Kitana in hiding, up to who knows what. The Nomads clawing a living out of the newly-destroyed Realm, Baraka's group aiming to be in charge of whatever the new structure is--probably taking Shinnok on. It's the sort of stupid, ballsy, ambitious thing Baraka would try ;^)

That's what got him all fucked up in the first place; taking on Kung Lao when he should have stood aside and let the Squads do their job. Of course, the same Squads then turned on him at Shinnok's orders, but we won't go into that just now ;^)

Presumably, Sheeva, Goro, Kintaro and Motaro are all dead, although I doubt it. Sheeva and Goro would be more likely to have met their ends, being that they showed honorable streaks way back in MK3 and would so be more of a threat to the evil dudes. But Kintaro was always a ruthless little suck-up and I might keep Motaro around just Because. As in "Because I Feel Like It". ;^P

At this point, then, the main evil dudes are: Shinnok, Scorpion, Reptile, Tanya, Mileena, and tentatively Motaro.

And the goodguy team consists solely of poor little Kitana, and whatever support she manages to dredge up; Kintaro might work for her, so long as she kept him in money. Baraka's contingent are on her side. They know which side of the toast has the butter on it ;^) Or to put it another way, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend...if only for the moment."

Which puts 'Leena in a tight spot, and also explains the depth of Shinnok's plan: let her lead them to Baraka, and let Baraka lead them to Kitana's main stronghold, and wipe out both his troubles with one stroke. This also gives Tanya the neat bonus of getting to destroy Leena by increments, psychologically. Nice and angsty ;^D

A nice complication could be Reptile and his death-magic experiments; those might have outcomes no one foresaw or even thought about.

Like, oh, Shao Kahn coming back from the grave, for instance...

After all, Shang Tsung has been missing for a good long time. There's no reason he couldn't have been using Reptile to further his own ends in Netherealm. Now THERE's a "deadly alliance" to write home about ;^D

Suppose they're the ones to get hold of the book; that'd bring 'em up to date real quick, and without any of those annoying "Character Explains It All" scenes. You know the ones--the really long dialogues that consist of one of the characters spitting out a list of plot-points while the other one says "I see" a lot. ;^D

And just for the really detail-conscious: of course Reptile knows all this just as well as the diary says it, but again it prevents dialogue. Which is always best. And anyway, I'll think up a better reason as I'm drafting it out ;^)

As far as conversations go: If you're not sure, shut them up.

Besides, most of that stuff could, and probably should, be in Part Three. It'll all depend.

Also have to look over the original deconstruction by my betas, to see if there are any questions or thoughts I might have left dangling.

Nixed Shang Tsung's involvement; he just complicates things. Besides, it takes out the loophole. Loopholes are a Bad Thing. And we don't like Bad Things, do we? Of course not ;^p

Working on the combat stylistics of the Nomads--they need to have some kind of form; ferocity only goes so far.

Hrrm. I dunno jack about Western swordfighting.

Japanese? Bushido (Samurai Way), is much too civilized for them, but there's also just Budo which is basically just Way of the Sword, and has utterly less polish than kendo (yet another kind of Japanese sword-fighting). The emphasis is on beating the crap out of your opponent, rather than looking impressive. That might be good. *Takes a look* yeah, Budo will work just fine.

Now to make up a bunch of crap that sounds like I actually know what I'm talking about, and pretend I know what I'm doing.

Don't hesitate, fabricate! ^_^

Just a quick thought on Blaze and Shimmer: they're the last of the Lehosa, the sorcerer-class of the Illusion culture. (Noob Saibot destroyed the others. Can't have a bunch of spellcasters running around mucking things up when you plan to rule by magic, now can you?)

Mostly all that are left are Shadeyn, those poor dudes with their mouths sewn up, and Kaleen, slightly better-off trader folk like the meat vendor dude.

See, the Illusion folk operate on a rigid caste system. The Lehosa, the top class, were pretty much wiped out. The Kaleen are downtrodden and afraid to leave their dwellings without any Lehosa to back them up. The Shadeyn, once a very proud class (warrior-guardians), were warped by Blaze and Shimmer into the semi-slaves they are now.

Speaking of whom: they were the most ambitious and nasty of their sort, and quick to side with Noob Saibot, which is the only reason they're around now.

Outline is finished, and in a form I like. Now all that remains is the footwork, and not much of that ^_^ Ought to be shipped off to my betas sometime next week.

"Mirrorworld" is way behind in that regard, but that's not one I send out for improvements, so it may actually get posted first, depending...