Shapeshifters
Mar. 21st, 2005 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethLast night I dreamed something complicated and plotty and slashy, with Jack Davenport. It was about a DEA agent (or probably the Brit equivalent, but I watch too much American TV) who stumbled into discovering a bunch of shapeshifters who were probably up to something nefarious but he never did figure out what. Mostly he stumbled around finding dead bodies that he'd just been having conversations with and one time finding a total slaughterhouse scene and someone who would identify him as the killer, but then the someone had a headache and a nosebleed and then couldn't remember seeing anyone, especially him. And the character played by JD was his only ally, his supervisor or lietenant or something. JD ended up in hospital at one point, and then turned up at the really messy crime scene all better. Which at this point the protagonist was way the hell too stressed out to realise was a Clue. And then things got slashy, but then the original JD character turned up. And *then* the shapeshifter JD claimed he'd actually switched side for love of the protagonist and the original JD never had that kind of feeling for him. And it all got very complicated.
It looked like a pretty interesting plot right up until the point where the main guy felt like he'd completely run out of options and his only way out was suicide, because what was the point when everyone could actually be copies of themselves and there was no earthly way to tell the difference? He was a cop and he had certain knowledge that put reasonable doubt on absolutely any conviction except if you caught someone red handed. And kept them in sight for every minute of every day thereafter. How could he keep on working under those conditions?
So he totally ground to a halt and that is a pretty depressing end to the story.
I suppose there could be some kind of magic 'hey, you can figure the difference really!' ending, but that would remove the point (which was kind of postmodern and about how if a copy is as good as / better than the original why does it matter which is the original). Or there could be the martian flu ending, where all the shapeshifters drop dead. Except then the JD guy would profess his undying love and he'd be left to wonder if actually it was *all* the shapeshifters, or even all the *shapeshifters*. Which would actually be kind of fun. But the guy would then have to choose if he could believe the happy potential lie or drive himself nuts again with wondering, and he spent his whole life investigating the truth, and dedicated to wiping out the possibility of the happy lie (the drugs that make people feel happy for a little while). So then we're back to the 'gun to the head' ending.
ooooh... but *then* they would find him all suicided on the floor, and that would wrap up the case they were building based on the shapeshifters trying to screw up his life, and *then* we'd see him and JD heading off into the sunset together to finally figure out these shapeshifter dudes and defend humanity. Only *neither* of them would know for sure if the other was in fact the original human born version or the shapeshifter copy. And neither would the reader.
That would be *fun*.
With the usual love conquers all, humanity yaay kind of ending, only twisted and dark too.
Yeah... now I just need a couple years and an extra brain so I can get around to writing this properly...
It looked like a pretty interesting plot right up until the point where the main guy felt like he'd completely run out of options and his only way out was suicide, because what was the point when everyone could actually be copies of themselves and there was no earthly way to tell the difference? He was a cop and he had certain knowledge that put reasonable doubt on absolutely any conviction except if you caught someone red handed. And kept them in sight for every minute of every day thereafter. How could he keep on working under those conditions?
So he totally ground to a halt and that is a pretty depressing end to the story.
I suppose there could be some kind of magic 'hey, you can figure the difference really!' ending, but that would remove the point (which was kind of postmodern and about how if a copy is as good as / better than the original why does it matter which is the original). Or there could be the martian flu ending, where all the shapeshifters drop dead. Except then the JD guy would profess his undying love and he'd be left to wonder if actually it was *all* the shapeshifters, or even all the *shapeshifters*. Which would actually be kind of fun. But the guy would then have to choose if he could believe the happy potential lie or drive himself nuts again with wondering, and he spent his whole life investigating the truth, and dedicated to wiping out the possibility of the happy lie (the drugs that make people feel happy for a little while). So then we're back to the 'gun to the head' ending.
ooooh... but *then* they would find him all suicided on the floor, and that would wrap up the case they were building based on the shapeshifters trying to screw up his life, and *then* we'd see him and JD heading off into the sunset together to finally figure out these shapeshifter dudes and defend humanity. Only *neither* of them would know for sure if the other was in fact the original human born version or the shapeshifter copy. And neither would the reader.
That would be *fun*.
With the usual love conquers all, humanity yaay kind of ending, only twisted and dark too.
Yeah... now I just need a couple years and an extra brain so I can get around to writing this properly...