De muse, she is evil...
Mar. 9th, 2004 11:17 pmSo, I'm thinking about my new fic "The End Is Only the Beginning" -- the first chapter just got sent to the beta reader, and for which a draft can be read here. The fic is a Slayers fic basically starting from a normal Slayers ending -- 'What if Zel got his cure?" Basically, it was inspired by a post made a while back about how so few Slayers fics address this -- most of them assume it will be all fuzzy bunnies and rainbows and Zel skipping off into the sunset with Amelia/Lina/Xellos/Gourry/a talking rock arm-in-arm.
So, in the first chapter a now human Zel can barely walk and gets shot at by bandits and passes out, mostly because he forgets that his chimera body is stronger, faster, tougher, has a larger store of energy for magic, and has better senses than his human body and his reflexes have been tuned to it for years. As I get deeper into the plot, Zel will get a bit better, but he will still be presented with a choice of figuring out a way of reversing his cure, letting a village that helped him out suffer at the hands of mazoku, or risk a hairbrained (undefined as of yet) scheme to get enough magical power to save the day. I kept trying to figure out a good gimick, and I started exploring the options, when all of a sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks on the way to the water fountain. "Why should the gimick succeed?" Namely, what if Zel were forced to undo his own cure because he doens't want to buy his humanity with the blood of innocents? This appeals to me. Mostly because I swore I would never give Zel his cure in a fanfiction, but a good part of it is because it is unexpected. The plot of the sotry would involve a great quest to get the magical hoozy-whatsy to allow the cast to save the day, and the quest will fail.
Of course, this still means I need a gimmick. Damn.
So, in the first chapter a now human Zel can barely walk and gets shot at by bandits and passes out, mostly because he forgets that his chimera body is stronger, faster, tougher, has a larger store of energy for magic, and has better senses than his human body and his reflexes have been tuned to it for years. As I get deeper into the plot, Zel will get a bit better, but he will still be presented with a choice of figuring out a way of reversing his cure, letting a village that helped him out suffer at the hands of mazoku, or risk a hairbrained (undefined as of yet) scheme to get enough magical power to save the day. I kept trying to figure out a good gimick, and I started exploring the options, when all of a sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks on the way to the water fountain. "Why should the gimick succeed?" Namely, what if Zel were forced to undo his own cure because he doens't want to buy his humanity with the blood of innocents? This appeals to me. Mostly because I swore I would never give Zel his cure in a fanfiction, but a good part of it is because it is unexpected. The plot of the sotry would involve a great quest to get the magical hoozy-whatsy to allow the cast to save the day, and the quest will fail.
Of course, this still means I need a gimmick. Damn.