Insomnia is very boring
Jan. 5th, 2012 05:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethHave pinned down more characters for the thing that needs a name that has Rhodri and Sean in it. None of the other characters have names that stick yet. I made some up but they keep sliding around. Also the planets need names. And the city. But I know more about the plot functions and how characters get involved.
So there's Rhodri who discovers what stone circles can do, and switches a camera between planets. There's the religious one who is looking to learn all the names of god. There's Sean, who is basically following his girlfriend around. And there's his sister, who turns up to protect him but stays to start a colony.
There's also a botanist who smokes way too much of his own, a vet who is a weird inner city self sufficiency devotee who makes plans involving goats, and an astrophysicist of restricted growth.
After that I need some people to be antagonists within the party. So, we've got a guy whose motive in joining the expedition had a lot to do with the promise of vanishing for a year. And why he wants to take over the party is he wants to start shipping things back home. Starting with substances that will have a ready market. Such as the stuff the botanist has been blissed out on since first being introduced to it. Most of the party aren't so much liking the idea of starting their interstellar mission by becoming drug dealers. But he thinks they're thinking small. Actually, both groups think the other is thinking small.
His speciality is moving stuff from place to place, assembling supplies and getting them where they need to be. Broadly speaking, anyways. So he answers their advert about logistics. He can also bring a couple of lads along for the lifting parts, and what do you know, they're handy with a tool kit too. Maintain your vehicles or do basic janitor work. Ever so useful. And exactly the jobs that they aren't getting applicants for. Gives him the start of a power base, two people that look to him first.
In my head he's turning into the butler, in charge of the servants. Is evil butler classist any more? There isn't exactly a large butler constituency now. Probably quite a lot of domestic servants. Definitely a ton of cleaners.
They also get a cook, who just got out of the equivalent of City College... actually, he may as well have just got out of City College and be looking for a job as far away from Norfolk as he can get. Applying to a space expedition would be that. And if they're all mad, well, can't be worse than student bedsits.
I'm saying he a lot. I think all the women are with Sean's sister and ex military in varying capacities. I don't know, is that weird? It's probably weird if she wants to start a colony made of ex military women. Yet in ways that could lead to a lot of interesting fic.
I'm having trouble keeping the names pinned down for Sean's sister and Rhodri & Sean's girlfriend, because I decided they would be Mary and Sue between them, and at first I thought Sean and Mary, but then it keeps slipping around to Sean and Susan in my head. If they are, they're twins. And they have the kind of parents who'd name them with the same initial and most of the same alphabet. But I was going for stereotypical names, so they're obvious, and Susan is a lot further down the popular names list than Mary for Northern Ireland. So now I'm stuck with the name of his sister and his girlfriend keeping on flipping around.
If the religious one is Mary that's simples. So his girlfriend can be Mary and his sister can be Susan.
*edits previous mentions*
So the butler dude in my head, he's either called Ethan or Ray (which sound like rather different backgrounds to me). And he's English. With a good voice.
... er, yeah, my mental cast list, it has consistent.
The medical doctor that an expedition logically needs might not be so simples to find. I mean, doctors tend to have stuff to do already. My head already tried to make the guy Methos, who has an agenda, and would loooooove to get off planet in the time of the Gathering. (Though then of course he'd find the far away in question was where he'd brought himself.) Today my head tried Sherlock's John Watson on for size, slightly disabled and wanting out. Another ex military dude. If the party ends up half ex mil and half civ that reminds of source. It's just kind of odd compared to actual reality. Maybe. Though obviously mil knows mil and would invite in and trust accordingly.
If I bring a medical doctor with a disability then he'd be the guy in the party who takes to the new biotech possibilities first and hardest. He'd want to be healed, wouldn't see his disabilities as part of himself yet, not a part he wants anyway. So he'd take their pills and potions once he was sure they were safe. Or, possibly, sooner. If he's a bit sketch in the mental health department. Self experimentation is worrying.
Sean is turning more and more techy in my head the more I try and think of things for him to do. Almost gadgeteer tech. He's electronics and communications, he's the one that rigs the circle for two way communication with home, albeit at a rather low bitrate. He turns radio control cars into low budget malps and makes a thing to go on the video tripod to give them a good view all around. His gadgets have to compare and contrast with the biotech stuff, so when he sends a tripod with a turning camera, they send a great big bird of prey on a perch, and the image is close but contrasting. He's not a MacGuyver, probably, I think. But if this were an SG team he'd be more Sam than John. Which, given Rhodri is already around, would make it odd if they're both in the field together. Plus initially Rhodri has figured out the circles and nobody else has, and similarly with the crystal tech. They figure stuff out together, they don't go hunting strange new civilisations together. That's Susan's job. Mary and Rhodri stay home. Sean probably goes with his sister, with her in command.
But I also want to send out the astrophysicist when they're going to another part of the world. He wants to go, and he wants to see the stars and figure out where they are. He'd argue he's perfectly fit enough for it. So I don't know what team he would be on, or if they have regular teams or just pull together whoever is up for a trip today. Hmmm, Susan wouldn't be cool with the random approach.
crystals/transporters
comms & electronics
religion and folklore
shooting stuff
astrophysics
botany
vet
medic
butler
mechanic
janitor
cook
That's more than half a group right there.
There has to be a linguist, a 'what does this button do' person, and someone who will ignore Keep Out signs. Susan would not ignore Keep Outs. Or press random buttons.
How would you get a decent linguist? I mean, they've got to recruit these people. I guess the military have linguists too. I'm tempted to import a US linguist who got fired from the military under DADT and moved to Britain cause we have gay marriage. They would look uncannily like Daniel Jackson. Because linguists in my head do. But then when the biotech pills are formulated everyone would talk alien in an American accent.
... which actually works on a meta level quite well...
But there's still the problem of finding him, and getting him to turn up and apply brain when people on the whole wouldn't have time for this 'alien planet via stone circle' stuff.
Actually, in general, how would you recruit people for a trip to an alien planet?
Or just recruit people at all?
Where do job adverts go?
If someone put up a web page saying they were putting together an expedition to another planet, 12 month trip, will be out of contact, don't forget your toothbrush...
... that's kind of not going to get a serious number of job applicants.
Well, if the job center knows about it it will get some because otherwise the JSA people get their benefits sanctioned.
... is there a limit on how insane a job posting can be to count for that?
When I advertised for someone to go with me to the pub I didn't get many applicants. Precisely three ever turned up to interview, over two rounds of interview. I never figured out why. What's not to like about that job?
ANYway, the realm of job recruitment is foreign to me, but then if the people in the story did these things sensibly there'd be much less story.
They advertise to make a space colony to be self sufficient for a year. They get the kind of people who respond to such an advert. And some of Susan's ex military friends. It'll be an interesting mixture.
Oh, and some people respond to their YouTube postings of videos from the other side. That would be how the linguist gets them, they hear a foreign language they don't know and even though they reckon it's a conlang they want to meet the people who've put it together. Turns up in person, same like the short dude. The astrophysics guy doesn't believe them about the stars, or maybe the planet has cool rings or spectacular northern lights... actually northern lights might be best, they're intermittent so they wouldn't have to do the FX every time someone was outside. Er, yeah, in my head this is a TV show with a budget. Is why I've also decided the stone circle makes a sort of whump or hush noise as the air pressure equalises, but otherwise just acts like a regular cut. Sound effect teleport systems are dead cheap. And logical. Why would they glow? And anything that takes visibly long enough to see me coalescing is just way too freaky to think about. Whump and there is much less worrying.
The What Does This Button Do guy could be a military dude. I'm just thinking on Skippy's List. Especially the addenda involving scorpion fighting.
In GURPS terms that's an easy set of character points, you just splat them with the Curiousity disadvantage, they become instant story generator.
You know logically if I can think all this stuff up I could be doing my homework. The trouble is my homework has to be coherent when I look at it later.
I should go try and sleep again.
So there's Rhodri who discovers what stone circles can do, and switches a camera between planets. There's the religious one who is looking to learn all the names of god. There's Sean, who is basically following his girlfriend around. And there's his sister, who turns up to protect him but stays to start a colony.
There's also a botanist who smokes way too much of his own, a vet who is a weird inner city self sufficiency devotee who makes plans involving goats, and an astrophysicist of restricted growth.
After that I need some people to be antagonists within the party. So, we've got a guy whose motive in joining the expedition had a lot to do with the promise of vanishing for a year. And why he wants to take over the party is he wants to start shipping things back home. Starting with substances that will have a ready market. Such as the stuff the botanist has been blissed out on since first being introduced to it. Most of the party aren't so much liking the idea of starting their interstellar mission by becoming drug dealers. But he thinks they're thinking small. Actually, both groups think the other is thinking small.
His speciality is moving stuff from place to place, assembling supplies and getting them where they need to be. Broadly speaking, anyways. So he answers their advert about logistics. He can also bring a couple of lads along for the lifting parts, and what do you know, they're handy with a tool kit too. Maintain your vehicles or do basic janitor work. Ever so useful. And exactly the jobs that they aren't getting applicants for. Gives him the start of a power base, two people that look to him first.
In my head he's turning into the butler, in charge of the servants. Is evil butler classist any more? There isn't exactly a large butler constituency now. Probably quite a lot of domestic servants. Definitely a ton of cleaners.
They also get a cook, who just got out of the equivalent of City College... actually, he may as well have just got out of City College and be looking for a job as far away from Norfolk as he can get. Applying to a space expedition would be that. And if they're all mad, well, can't be worse than student bedsits.
I'm saying he a lot. I think all the women are with Sean's sister and ex military in varying capacities. I don't know, is that weird? It's probably weird if she wants to start a colony made of ex military women. Yet in ways that could lead to a lot of interesting fic.
I'm having trouble keeping the names pinned down for Sean's sister and Rhodri & Sean's girlfriend, because I decided they would be Mary and Sue between them, and at first I thought Sean and Mary, but then it keeps slipping around to Sean and Susan in my head. If they are, they're twins. And they have the kind of parents who'd name them with the same initial and most of the same alphabet. But I was going for stereotypical names, so they're obvious, and Susan is a lot further down the popular names list than Mary for Northern Ireland. So now I'm stuck with the name of his sister and his girlfriend keeping on flipping around.
If the religious one is Mary that's simples. So his girlfriend can be Mary and his sister can be Susan.
*edits previous mentions*
So the butler dude in my head, he's either called Ethan or Ray (which sound like rather different backgrounds to me). And he's English. With a good voice.
... er, yeah, my mental cast list, it has consistent.
The medical doctor that an expedition logically needs might not be so simples to find. I mean, doctors tend to have stuff to do already. My head already tried to make the guy Methos, who has an agenda, and would loooooove to get off planet in the time of the Gathering. (Though then of course he'd find the far away in question was where he'd brought himself.) Today my head tried Sherlock's John Watson on for size, slightly disabled and wanting out. Another ex military dude. If the party ends up half ex mil and half civ that reminds of source. It's just kind of odd compared to actual reality. Maybe. Though obviously mil knows mil and would invite in and trust accordingly.
If I bring a medical doctor with a disability then he'd be the guy in the party who takes to the new biotech possibilities first and hardest. He'd want to be healed, wouldn't see his disabilities as part of himself yet, not a part he wants anyway. So he'd take their pills and potions once he was sure they were safe. Or, possibly, sooner. If he's a bit sketch in the mental health department. Self experimentation is worrying.
Sean is turning more and more techy in my head the more I try and think of things for him to do. Almost gadgeteer tech. He's electronics and communications, he's the one that rigs the circle for two way communication with home, albeit at a rather low bitrate. He turns radio control cars into low budget malps and makes a thing to go on the video tripod to give them a good view all around. His gadgets have to compare and contrast with the biotech stuff, so when he sends a tripod with a turning camera, they send a great big bird of prey on a perch, and the image is close but contrasting. He's not a MacGuyver, probably, I think. But if this were an SG team he'd be more Sam than John. Which, given Rhodri is already around, would make it odd if they're both in the field together. Plus initially Rhodri has figured out the circles and nobody else has, and similarly with the crystal tech. They figure stuff out together, they don't go hunting strange new civilisations together. That's Susan's job. Mary and Rhodri stay home. Sean probably goes with his sister, with her in command.
But I also want to send out the astrophysicist when they're going to another part of the world. He wants to go, and he wants to see the stars and figure out where they are. He'd argue he's perfectly fit enough for it. So I don't know what team he would be on, or if they have regular teams or just pull together whoever is up for a trip today. Hmmm, Susan wouldn't be cool with the random approach.
crystals/transporters
comms & electronics
religion and folklore
shooting stuff
astrophysics
botany
vet
medic
butler
mechanic
janitor
cook
That's more than half a group right there.
There has to be a linguist, a 'what does this button do' person, and someone who will ignore Keep Out signs. Susan would not ignore Keep Outs. Or press random buttons.
How would you get a decent linguist? I mean, they've got to recruit these people. I guess the military have linguists too. I'm tempted to import a US linguist who got fired from the military under DADT and moved to Britain cause we have gay marriage. They would look uncannily like Daniel Jackson. Because linguists in my head do. But then when the biotech pills are formulated everyone would talk alien in an American accent.
... which actually works on a meta level quite well...
But there's still the problem of finding him, and getting him to turn up and apply brain when people on the whole wouldn't have time for this 'alien planet via stone circle' stuff.
Actually, in general, how would you recruit people for a trip to an alien planet?
Or just recruit people at all?
Where do job adverts go?
If someone put up a web page saying they were putting together an expedition to another planet, 12 month trip, will be out of contact, don't forget your toothbrush...
... that's kind of not going to get a serious number of job applicants.
Well, if the job center knows about it it will get some because otherwise the JSA people get their benefits sanctioned.
... is there a limit on how insane a job posting can be to count for that?
When I advertised for someone to go with me to the pub I didn't get many applicants. Precisely three ever turned up to interview, over two rounds of interview. I never figured out why. What's not to like about that job?
ANYway, the realm of job recruitment is foreign to me, but then if the people in the story did these things sensibly there'd be much less story.
They advertise to make a space colony to be self sufficient for a year. They get the kind of people who respond to such an advert. And some of Susan's ex military friends. It'll be an interesting mixture.
Oh, and some people respond to their YouTube postings of videos from the other side. That would be how the linguist gets them, they hear a foreign language they don't know and even though they reckon it's a conlang they want to meet the people who've put it together. Turns up in person, same like the short dude. The astrophysics guy doesn't believe them about the stars, or maybe the planet has cool rings or spectacular northern lights... actually northern lights might be best, they're intermittent so they wouldn't have to do the FX every time someone was outside. Er, yeah, in my head this is a TV show with a budget. Is why I've also decided the stone circle makes a sort of whump or hush noise as the air pressure equalises, but otherwise just acts like a regular cut. Sound effect teleport systems are dead cheap. And logical. Why would they glow? And anything that takes visibly long enough to see me coalescing is just way too freaky to think about. Whump and there is much less worrying.
The What Does This Button Do guy could be a military dude. I'm just thinking on Skippy's List. Especially the addenda involving scorpion fighting.
In GURPS terms that's an easy set of character points, you just splat them with the Curiousity disadvantage, they become instant story generator.
You know logically if I can think all this stuff up I could be doing my homework. The trouble is my homework has to be coherent when I look at it later.
I should go try and sleep again.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 10:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-09 01:34 am (UTC)