Ideas for future story material (that probably hasn't already been mentioned recently):
From Antestarr, concerning the characters Young and Antestarr in particular:
So, I suppose there's Ante. He's kinda hurting. Doesn't like to show it in front of other people, but the use of the Hyper-Time Modulator (HTM) has left him in a sad state [note from Geb: TLTE currently has this I believe]. The reason that caused a problem is that while he was moving in "writer-time", his heart also beat that fast, which, upon returning to "story-time", caused immense pressure on his blood vessels. The first signs of the problem were the fits of coughing up blood, which is a result of blood from the stressed vessels seeping into his lungs.
He's still driven by the idea that the characters and supporting cast should be able to think and act for themselves. Hence why he doesn't believe heroes should help the populace. They need to grow and become strong.
As for Young, she was Ante's ultimate attempt at creating someone who the writers couldn't harm. NeS itself would change in order to protect its child. As she came to understand this, she would gain powers similar to Geb's wielding of the story, able to coerce her "mother" into changing things according to her whims.
The paradox that had been in Siberia, created when NeS pushed itself to the limits to protect Young, was collected by Thrawnbot, who had been helping Ante since the Ahnuld incident. Ante would eventually turn to it in desperation to prolong his life long enough to see the characters "freed", taking it into his body to replace his circulatory system with the nothingness [note from Geb: I already introduced this when Thrawnbot gave Antestarr the "Siberian slushie" a bit ago]. This would result in the loss of his hair, as well as his ability to bleed. I never really thought about if it would grant him any kind of powers.
Subaru. I'm not sure if she's been in the story at all for a while, but I was trying to put in some kind of romantic interest for her towards Ante. He would end up hurting her, telling her that it's nothing more than "hero worship" and that she needs to give up on him. He might think that's how it is, but he'd really just be trying not to bring her down the same path as him.
S[hattered]-Ante. I wanted him included because he's crazy, yet more rational/observant than Ante. He would have bizarre tendencies due to his long isolation, but would also see things more clearly (as I hope was inferred when he identified Ricky as a girl). He'd also be familiar with the HTM and the dangers associated with it (he would never have made a working model once he realized what it would do to the user.) He would be the one to tell Subaru that she is Ante's only real hope for redemption.
I was going to work Dalaes into this somehow. I've usually tried to make him relate to Ante, yet be like a twisted reflection. Only this time Ante would be the twisted reflection, now that Dalaes is no longer under the influence of the Darksaber.
Speaking of which, who has that right now? I had wanted Ante to have it by this point, but I don't rightly recall why. [Note from Geb: Antestarr had the darksaber last I checked.]
Down the road I hoped for Young to grow in power to the point where she could prevent the writers from being able to change NeS. She would be the sole entity able to change the flow of the story. She'd believe it to be what Ante wants, and would in fact harbor a romantic crush on him, hoping to give him a place of honor at her side as she assumes the position of "Queen of NeS" [note from Geb: I went ahead and hinted the twisted father-daughter/lovers stuff between them too. However, I personally think Young would be the type to love EVERYONE, or at least a lot of people, to the point where she does the following suggested]. It would be at this time, as he watches her toy with the people he once associated with, that he would realize he hadn't freed the characters from the writers, only replaced them with a new all-powerful being. Eventually his friends would help him to see that he needs to end this, and he would either convince Young to relinquish her power, or fight her. Either way the paradox would be taken from him by her in order to save him (as one last act of love), destroying her in the process [note from Geb: I would only want Young to die if she's already given birth]. Subaru would probably end up healing his wounds at that point.
After that, who knows. Ante could rejoin his old friends if they let him, or maybe disappear and go off somewhere.
In the end, though, the it would be decided that the writers are a "necessary evil" in order to help the characters have stories to follow and villains to vanquish.
Stuff already mentioned:
-Geb is revived, files his taxes, pops some happy pills and breaks up with Rachel, leading her to form a love/hate relationship with Geb and become a Protector of the Plotfractal to make his life miserable (and yet do as he wants by not destroying the story).
From Ben:
-Jim's great escaped evils = I got nothin'.
-the still unresolved battle between Tsolo and Kern = Sarn actually told me that the end of this conflict was meant to imply that Tsolo and Kern (as the Forgotten One) decided to team up and plot something -- what the something is I haven't a clue.
-the Patriot still trying to kill TLTE = yeah, eventually either the Patriot will have to change his resolve or die. How that'll come about, I'm not sure.
-the Incalculable Ego on the lose = I'd talk about this but I think JM might try to kill me if I do, so I just hope he either talks about it himself or prods the story in the right directions. I don't really know how to tackle this myself - super-epic beings aren't usually my style.
-Young's impending child = haha, well the child should probably be born at some point, and eventually have a set of gray hair, but beyond that, the child was actually written on my part as a very long term project, for the child to grow up as the other characters grow older and whatnot. It's very likely that the child will live a very crazy life, not only because it'll likely grow up with all sorts of things happening to it, but because the child is the offspring of Young and Gebiyl and will have to struggle with what is perceived to be a conflict between its "NeS side" and its "EeP side" - the struggle is meant to be psychological, however, as the child will likely be talented but not meant to actually bear the mantle of either.
-Personally I was hoping to dig deep and send Totally and Semi Evil to their father Doctor Evil in Disney World (since last I checked he was still in charge of the place, though with all the world wide invasions that have succeeded since then he really could be anywhere), possibly to meet their newest sibling straight out of the inoculation tube. So maybe having a story arc focused on babies wouldn't be too bad of an idea. = haha, I remember that! My only thoughts on that are that both Semievil and TotallyEvil are probably adopted from different families by Doctor Evil.
From Tracer:
Yeah, the leadership stuff sounds fun. Poor Geb, he's been out of commission so much in NeSquared that he probably can't hack being a leader even if the others wanted him to be.
From TLTE:
Matthias was supposed to have lived from the fight between the NeScholars and Thand, on purpose from Thand, and I believe Matthias was supposed to eventually join TLTE.
From me:
As for TLTE, I actually like where Al Ciao has been taking things - it's what I would have had in mind. Eventually (as in closer to page 50 of NeSquared), TLTE is likely to embrace evil not because he's "destined" to do so or otherwise does so outside his control, as I see it, but because he chooses to do so (sort of like an evil Neo at the end of the third Matrix movie). He may even threaten to kill Losien, which would be one of the most conflicting moments for Gebohq (who usually wants to love his enemy in the Christian sense, but might not be able to in such a scenario).
As for Thand, he'll eventually have to be proven right come the end of page 50, but between here and there, I honestly don't know what to do. It's very difficult to encourage Thand as an active antagonist when a) his ultimate motives are unclear, b) doing justice to an all-wise and right character makes writing conflicts with him difficult and c) he's not the type to be out in the spotlight in the first place. I've been suggested that Thand might be one not to be able to predict many long-term events with too much certainty due to chaos theory and the nature of NeS, but may be a master of short-term planning i.e. the Rube Goldberg machine. This could, of course, lend itself to situations that I'm sure guys like Tracer would be awesome at writing.
The only other "plans" I had with Thand is to have a heart-to-heart with Gebohq at some point, to show the more human side of Thand. No real specifics, really, just about their lack of love lives and whatnot. There's also technically the plothole device in South America I planted for Thand, but that's only there to fuel whatever plot he might have in the future, or to "go off" in the event that Thand actually got eaten up by Tsolo or whatnot, which for the record, I hope doesn't happen.
Eventually, I'd like to do a "clip show" style story-arc, but not now.
If I recall anything else, I'll jot it down, but really, I'm hoping that at least the next story-arc or two will be completely spontaneous and directed by some of the other writers more so than myself.
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