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And now, reading the subject of this thread, some of you will think: "Well, no shoot Sherlock, what do you think this community is about?", but what I meant by it is, do any of you folks have any writing projects outside fan-fiction and missions? Your own universe with your own plot and characters? I know at least three of us (excluding me) that do, but I'm curious to know if we have more. So why don't we come clean and share our deepest, darkest aspirations? I'll start!




So, in my universe, King Arthur's brotherhood of the Knights of the Round Table survived until the modern day, and expanded into a sort of secret police force that serves directly under the Queen (or King) of England, protecting the country from various threats, usually of paranormal origin: mostly monsters, but sometimes psychotic cultists, magicians, etc.

As I happen to be very unoriginal, you can spot several inspirations, including The Dresden Files, Ranger's Apprentice, and The Order: 1886. At first I wanted to write a series centered around the magicians of my universe (being the magic nerd I am), but then I got the Knights in the whole mess and decided that their story will come first and later... who knows.

What about you guys? Anything we can share? Maybe somebody else will have helpful tips about the specific genre you're writing for?

I wonder how they guessed my size so accurately...?

((I know nothing about Discworld, so here's hoping I didn't accidentally pick the worst option.))

-Alleb

There was this tense staring down moment between the two of them, then Vader started doing his etching again and... well, I thought he was a goner, and instead Palpatine now wants him to redesign his place.

Apparently, New Sabercut opened Palpatine's eyes to the world of art, meaning there are two villains less and two art lovers more! Yay?

Currently: Darth Vader's shoulder devil.

The advantage of having Vader on your side (or under your control, or driven insane and susceptible to your manipulation... whatever) is that he already knows where he's going. It's hardly 'breaking into' the Imperial Palace when the guards stand aside and allow you access.

Of course, once he's standing in front of Palpatine with an ignited lightsaber, things get a little less... predictable.

What happened?
-After a super-awesome fight, Vader killed Palpatine.
-Palpatine zapped Vader with lightning and took him down in five seconds.
-Vader and Palpatine managed to kill each other.
-Vader got distracted before attacking and ended up on a week-long project to redesign the Emperor's palace in the popular New Sabercut style.

Well, since I just woke up and I'm feeling chipper, let's go kill the Emperor!

Let it never be said the Sith don't think big...

It's great that you've turned the galaxy's most feared individual into a planetary-scale artist, but it occurs to me that the Emperor probably isn't going to be pleased with that. In fact, it seems quite likely he's already got a bunch of apprentices and bounty hunters lined up to hunt down Vader and kill him. Which would be pretty rubbish from your perspective, and the perspective of Art, am I right?

So what are you going to do about it?
-Let Vader die and go bug someone else.
-Have Vader take the initiative and kill the Emperor.
-Take Vader off to join the Rebellion.
-Nudge Vader into carving a giant asteroid-maze and take up residence in the centre.

I actually feel a tiny bit teary-eyed after reading that. Thank you for doing these threads, hS. I love them.

-Alleb

... He smells of wafers.

I might've gone overboard. He used the last of his authority to take direct command of a Star Destroyer, and now he's using its main battery for the carvings.

He's doing that on unhinabited asteroids, though, which is good. And he's even managing to sell those otherwise useless rocks for a ton of money - there's this dude who had five of them put around his personal planet as moons!

The stormtroopers on the ship are rather puzzled as why Vadfer is doing this, but have I mentioned her's making a net profit out of it, even with the ship's running costs? He's even given his underlings a raise.

[This needs to be turned into a crackfic.]

You set out from Lindon on a fine spring evening, with the sun at your back and a fair wind behind you, and you never look back. You feel you've chosen the best path in life - why settle for one of the lands of Arda when you can have them all?

As the years pass, you touch the world only lightly. You watch the cities of Gondor and Arnor grow from afar. You learn the languages of Men, Elves, and Dwarves. You visit with Fangorn the Onod in his last forested refuge. You explore the near regions of Harad, slipping into the Black Numenorean haven at Umbar on little more than a whim. After the Battle of Dagorlad and the fall of Sauron, you even visit Mordor itself, and stand amid the ruins of the Barad-dur.

Along the way, your Mysterious Voice from Above checks in every so often, keeping you safe, guiding you towards wonders large and small. You are the first person to set foot on the Hill that will one day be the heart of Hobbiton, the first to raise a torch in the caves of Aglarond and see a thousand gems gleam, the first to see the leaves turn gold in autumn and to see them bud again in spring.

You make no impact on the world. Your knowledge of the future is lost to the ages, and Middle-earth carries on as it was always going to. But you don't care. For a brief, glittering moment, a mere handful of years, the world is spread out before you, waiting for you to come to it.

You couldn't ask for anything more.

Currently: turning Vader into an insane artist.

Who knows? You could completely change the course of history if you push on down this path. So why don't you keep doing that, and I'll leave you to it for a while. Say, another month?

~

Hi! It's me again.

How's Vader doing?
-He's started his own gallery, and calls you his muse.
-He still makes carvings, then beheads any critic who dares to comment negatively.
-He has switched media and now writes angsty poetry: "My armour is black/My heart is too/Padme, dear Padme/I super loved you."
-He has taken his carvings to the next level and is using a star destroyer's main battery to reshape asteroids.

Well, at first I was interrogated about technology, but then I told them I was probably from their past, and thus knew nothing they hadn't progressed beyond, and they locked me in this moderately comfortable room. It's alright; it could use some more tasteful decorations, perhaps a sea-green duvet on the bed, but I'll live.

-Alleb

I'm picking up some supplies, a good crossbow, hopefully a sturdy horse, and I'm off. There's an entire world to see!

-Alleb

Funnily enough, some of his lightsaber carvings are attracting the attention of art critics, so I keep pushing him towards this path. Just for the heck of it.

I'm even considering telling him "Padme isn't ashamed of this one actually" on the good ones.

You've got a whole life ahead of you here in Middle-earth, and since Elendil is a generally understanding sort, it's up to you how you spend it. When you next get to talk to the King (because he is, now), you should be able to choose who you move in with.

Where will you live?
-With the Numenoreans, in the golden city of Annuminas they will build.
-With Gil-Galad's elves, in Lindon.
-With the common folk of Middle-earth, in the Bree-land.
-With the dwarves, in their grand citadel of Khazad-dûm (if they'll have you).
-Who wants to settle down? You'd rather be a wanderer across all of Middle-earth.

I want to see the Elves!

Currently: driving Vader insane.

I mean, more of a rage monster than Vader already was. You'll have to give me an update on what he's up to.

What sort of rampage, exactly?
-He has murdered the Emperor and is slaughtering his way through the Imperial military.
-He's personally depopulating Coruscant one spacescraper at a time.
-He's taken direct control of a Star Destroyer and is blowing up Coruscant's orbital traffic.
-He's taken the Imperial Senate hostage and is torturing them to death one by one.
-He's carving words into the landscape with his lightsaber; most of them are variants on 'argh'.

Poor old Animé Furtwangler here is lost in the Force. Lost deep. So deep I doubt he'll ever get out again. His passion and his rage were what made him such a useful asset to Palpatine as a Sith, but now? That very strength has made dear Otherkin Snozzcumber into something of a liability. That's certainly the Emperor's viewpoint, which is presumably why he tried to have him frozen in carbonite.

This went about as well as one might reasonably expect.

Nowadays, I keep trolling him. I'm a ghastly little turd, which will come as such a shock to everyone on this forum, I'm sure; every painful memory is fair game, every application of logic and collected, rational thought (the Jedi way, haha) is designed to cause him the maximum possible distress. Vader's fall from grace has been complete, and it is only because he is a Sith that this was able to work at all. I have altered his mind, and when I give him enough space to pray, I believe he prays I do not alter it further.

I'm not doing this because he's a villain, though. Far from it. That's just a happy coincidence, driving a main villain so mad that he can't do anything to advance his objectives or be used in a way that advances those of his dark master. No, I'm doing this because he has levers and I am going to pull on them like a hypercaffeinated gibbon in a signal box, just to see what will happen. Because the truth of it is, O Mysterious Voice from Above, that I'm not a very nice person.

Again, a quite shocking development.

=]

Your captors ((Seriously, how are you a captive in all three canons right now?!)) know you're from another world, and that you don't have a clue where you are. Maybe they believe you, maybe they don't.

What are they doing now?
-Feeding you a rather nice meal and saying they'll drop you off when they next make planetfall.
-Locking you in a moderately comfortable room.
-Asking you to help them on a mission.
-Torturing you.
-Demanding technical information about any technology you know of that could help them.

((Stars, I dunno. What would a shipload of Jedi do with a prisoner from another universe? Feel free to give a custom answer if you've got a better idea. ~hS))

The werewolf will lead you indoors, but how the rest of your night unfolds will depend on what happens next. This is still an extremely risky situation.

Where did the wolf lead you?
-To a banquet hall, where a bunch of people who don't wear many clothes are enjoying a feast.
-To a bedroom, where there are clothes in your size.
-To a dark, damp cell.
-To an underground laboratory.
-To the back door.

Currently: a prisoner on a Numenorean ship.

You're tied, locked, or otherwise shut up on a ship. Good news: that means you're going to get away from Numenor before it sinks, because these nine ships are the only ones that escape. Bad news: you're not rescuing Miriel before you go.

I don't know how long it will be before you sail, but between that and the storm-tossed journey to Middle-earth proper, you should have at least a couple of weeks. Use it to learn some basic Sindarin, so you can communicate with your captors-slash-rescuers.

Eventually, your ship will land. Four of them (led by Elendil himself) will wind up in the north, near the Elven kingdom of Lindon; the other five (led by his sons) will end up in the southern haven of Pelargir, on the Great River Anduin.

Where did you land?
-Lindon.
-Pelargir.

((And since you've learned basic Sindarin, I don't have to do any more translations into that horrifyingly complicated language. Yay! ~hS))

Chondropyga dorsalis!

Allomyrina dichotoma, amirite?

Phew, that's as many beetles references I, for one, can stomach.

Happy Boardiversary! Congratulations on being here for four years! Congratulations on being published, doing research, and almost finishing university! Congratulations on getting permission that one time!

Congratulatulatulations in general!

Keep it up! I'll be back in another month or so.

~

Hi! It's your Mysterious Voice from Above again. How are things going? Still trolling the Dark Lord of the Sith?

How is Vader doing?
-He no longer sleeps, just yells at you.
-The Emperor has had him frozen in carbonite.
-The Emperor tried to have him frozen in carbonite, but he escaped and went on a rampage.
-He has weekly appointments with the most terrified psychiatrist in the Empire.
-He never leaves his room any more.