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The Rise and Fall of Charlotte Tann (NaNoWriMo Project) Tag: TRaFoCT

Charlotte Tann is a psychic who has garnered massive media attention due to her accuracy in predicting the movements of a local serial killer, the Oaktown Slasher. But not all is as it seems - the slasher is really Gregor Tann, Charlotte's husband, and they're working together to boost her floundering reputation.

Their crimes attract the attention of Gogo Gummi, an 8-foot-tall hellhound and spirit of vengeance. Though eager to seek revenge on Charlotte, she is bound to kill only those who have personally killed, so a battle of wits between her and the fake psychic begin.

For the Love of Money (working title) Tag: FtLoM

College student Micah West-Flint is in a tight spot: he's close to failing Psychology 101 and losing the funding of his rich but strict parents. In desperation, he partners up with Kat, a fellow classmate, for some extra studying time.

Days before the midterm exam, Micah is approached by a strange man. He promises that Micah will pass with flying colors if he performs a little sacrificial ritual for him.

Red Planet Demolition Tag: RPD

In the far-flung future, teleportation devices have made traveling to other planets trivial. Mars has been colonized, with its capital, Schiaparelli City, growing into a massive hub for the elite to party the days away.

Also on Mars are anthroids, humanoid robots sold as all-purpose personal assistants. Zenith Neo and Jade Ind., the two companies that make them, have been at each other's throats for years - and it seems that literal war between them may be looming.

Like, even though The Invisible Man is considered a classic horror movie along with Dracula, Frankenstein, etc invisible men aren't nearly as prominent in pop culture as vampires, werewolves, etc

By invisible man I mean "person who is invisible, but not by choice and/or is permanently stuck that way", as opposed to characters like Sue Storm or Violet Parr can can go invisible at will.

And it's a shame because there's so many fun ways you can spin it. My favourite is "Abbott and Costello meet the invisible man", where the titular man is a boxer. There's a scene where Costello is trying his best in the ring while the actual invisible boxer takes out his opponent.

and I have a new wip. Feel free to ask questions, etc

The premise:

The year is 2023. A pair of obnoxious but unsuccessful ghosthunting YouTubers have just found their ticket to fame and fortune: an actual ghost by the name of Quapphideus.

Well, he's actually an invisible man from a parallel "Halloweentown" dimension, but same difference. With his help, they set about filming the most convincing "paranormal" activity the internet has ever seen.

Quapphideus' sister, a partially invisible woman by the name of Zaranzibayar, is determined to figure out what happened to her brother, and ventures into the strange, magicless world he's fallen into...

Basically, in another, parallel universe, Haemundus kills Madeline because he delights in seeing Kat's suffering. Kat begs Dismodat to "do something". Something, in this case, is Dismodat sending Kat to the "main" universe where Madeline is still alive.

Quapphideus (exact spelling of name subject to change) is an invisible man and alchemist that lives in a sort of halloweentown world, where magically mutated humans and animals are the norm. His experiments in a secluded tower have led to him to a strange world of extremely sophisticated machines and physics at odds with every law that he knows - earth! Here, he decides to ply his trade at illusions, becoming a prestidigitationist once he learns that the laws of alchemy and physics where he comes from are different than in his own world.

Quapphideus' invisibility is due to microscopic crystals in his hair, skin, and eyes. These crystals bend light "around" themselves, resulting in a human that is completely see-through. In earth physics, this is impossible, but Quapphideus' body literally operates according to a different set of rules.

It's useful to note that his teeth and the inside of his mouth are still visible. His internals are, too - if he were, say, cut open for surgery, his organs would be visible.

Quapphideus' mission in life has been to engineer clothing that is as invisible as he is. He's succeeded a few times... but he always ends up losing his invisible clothes.

Zaranzibayar is Quapphideus' sister, an invisible woman who is a bit different from her brother. Every part of her is full of light-bending crystals, and completely transparent... except her teeth and bones. At first glance, she appears to be a walking skeleton.

More serious than her brother, Zara is a botanist that experiments with mutating plants and crops to create bigger and better produce.

The Handbeast has no other name. It was created when Quapphideus experimented upon a severed human hand (don't ask him where it came from). The size of a horse, the Handbeast walks on stumpy legs sprouting from where the wrist would begin, with digits pointed skyward.

A silent but helpful companion, the Handbeast allows Quapphideus to ride it around. He sits in the crook between its thumb and forefinger.

All of my original fiction is "top-down", which i define as characters first, then building a setting around them, often changing said setting dramatically over the years.

I find doing "bottom-up", beginning with a world/setting and extrapolating up from there, to be much harder. Probably why all but one of my WiPs are set in more or less reality.

I think a rundown of how easily a story could be adapted into a different time or place would be fun.

For example, SoFTS is set in the late 90s/early 80s America. The setting is completely mundane (ie based on real life) except the supernatural (in the form of vengeful spirits) exists. Even then, there's only one example of said spirit (Gogo), and come to think of it, Gogo could very easily be a human. It wouldn't change any of the overall themes.

The date, however, is kind of critical. It wouldn't work as well in the modern day because of advances in forensic and computer technology. Plus the fact that psychics nowadays aren't quite as Big as they used to be.

FtLoM takes place in 2010 (idk why that specific year, but anyway). The only non-mundane thing are the four eldritch creation gods, and even then, it's not a case of them having been around for eons. When the story starts, they've just arrived in the main characters' reality. This is, of course, one story which depends on the supernatural elements. I still think it's a compelling idea at its core (a spoiled rich boy is forced to either pass a college class or pay for his own tuition), though the mechanics of the eldritch gods and their acolytes is central to the story.

Neither time nor place is quite crucial to the story, really.

Villainized takes place some indeterminate amount of time in the future. I personally imagine this to be 30 years or so, but the exact date doesn't particularly matter. The only difference from reality is that aliens exist, but have only very rarely visited earth, as it's a protected planet. Time, here, doesn't really matter.

Red Planet Demolition does depend on both its timeframe and its setting — namely, the distant future in which humanity has colonized Mars. Since that's, well... where its set.

Douza Ev, a jovial man that was the doctor of his hometown before it was catastrophically destroyed.

Xathandua Vek, a necromancer from Ev's village. He seeks power - even that from the dark reaches of magic - to find and take revenge on the creator of the catastrophe.

Endurance XVI, a minotaur prince who does too much partying and not enough training to be king.

Shika, a goblin princess who failed to establish her own colony and now drifts uncertainly.

Fairly close. Johannes claims to go to another school, but hangs around with Dexter during extra-curricular activities. Dexter doesn't have many friends, and the ones he does have never spproached him first.

"The Zodiac Master is a masked supervillain who made his presence known in Gotham City by accurately predicting a series of disasters, all of which he secretly orchestrated. Having duped most of the city, he then offered his services as an underworld consultant, using his supposed astrological skills to foretell the outcome of various proposed crimes."

Blackmail, plain and simple. Tessa is well aware that Berl is wanted by the law. She's also aware that alerting the earth authorities to Berl's presence will open up a huge can of worms.

As I've mentioned, earth is a protected planet and off-limits to alien lifeforms. Other alien species are in a sort of coalition, and have a general agreement to not involve earth in their dealings.

The fact that Berl-Zig is on earth at all is a bureaucratic headache: IGLE was torn, because on the one hand, Berl shouldn't be there, but on the other hand, sending a law enforcement agent to arrest her would be violating the earth sanctity treaty.