I've gotten at least some of what I wanted to get down on the break between semester at Butte College. I did that web page with Flash done for the 1st chapter of "An Angel's Destiny" I've got a good template page now for that I can just put the content in for the rest, but I don't know what to write for the 2nd chapter yet.
An Angel's Destiny
The problem is that when I came up with the idea in 1988 and wrote the plot for it, I had only had a general idea for it and a couple of specific scenes. Now that I've finally gotten around to writing it I need to flesh it out and fill in the parts that I didn't get to yet.
The summary of Plot Outlines for the Universe Cube
I had the opening scene which was more graphic and erotic in the original version and the scene where she downloads herself into Stanford Linear Accelerator and uses the energy of the particle accelerator and the chakra system as a blueprint for constructing her body on the material plane.
Since I had the inspiration for the story from the movie "Weird Science" it was going to be a tale of a Guardian Angel helping a nerd type guy into maturing his personality and gainging confidence to achieve his goals. Along the way it was going to give her experience to find her path and where she belonged on it.
Now I need to fill in some of the details about how they do those things. From posting it as a story game at City of If, I'm thinking about doing a subplot of the injustice of the whole notion of the Paradise of Islam where the faithful are promised "76 dark haired virgins" in the afterlife and how sexist that is. From gaining experience Minerva can go back to get better working conditions for the houris
City of IF :: View topic - New Storygame: An Angel's Destiny
I guess I need to develope the characters some more since all I have so far is "Minerva is a houri in Elysium. She is 5' 7" tall with a slender figure and angelic beauty. She has long, glowing golden hair and brilliant blue eyes. Minerva has a kittens playfulness and likes french fries." I was kinda of modeling her start as like the angel that Emmanuelle Beart played in the movie "Date with an Angel" but I need to figure out how she evolves as the story goes on.
Also what I have for him is "Chris Amestrly is a machinist at Lockheed. He is 5' 6" tall with a medium build. He has short dark hair and green eyes. Chris is recovering from an addiction to BBS and is fairly shy. He still has all his fantasies and uses his computer knowledge to realize them." I need to fill in the ways that he grows from that under Minerva's guidance.
Since the next chapter is going to be about the interview with Odin to apply for the Guardian Angel job, I should probably go into something about how it operates. Ravenwing on City of If seemed to be confused about their role since they said "Why do you have Greeks worshipping Odin, who happens to be a Norse god?" so some explaination would probably be in order.
Odin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Odin was promoted to manage the Guardian Angel Branch (GAB) since he had the experience of sending the Valkyries out to be the Choosers of the Slain and that gave him the skills needed to assumed a wider range of responsibilities.
Valkyrie - Wikipedia
Odin was a shapechanger able to alter his skin and form in any way he liked. He was said to travel the world as an old man with a staff, one-eyed, grey-bearded and wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Odin has a number of magical artifacts associated with him: the dwarven spear Gungnir, which never misses its target, a magical gold ring (Draupnir), from which every ninth night eight new rings appear, an eight-legged horse (Sleipnir) and two ravens Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory), who travel the world to acquire information at his behest. He also commands a pair of wolves named Geri and Freki, to whom he gives his food since he consumes nothing but wine. From his throne, Hlidskjalf (located in Valaskjalf), Odin could see everything that occurred in the universe. The Valknut is a symbol associated with Odin.
Valknut - Wikipedia
I was thinking that the GAB would be responsible for maintaining the balance of all the worldlines in the Omniverse and raising the vibration rates of the people in them by evolving their states of consciousness by giving them assignments to experience situations and circumstances in the Grande Game that let them grow to the the next level.
Xanth - Wikipedia
They sort of function like the Magician Humfrey does in the Xanth novels by giving the angels and the people the motivations and goals to achieve the experience they need to grow and transcend the limts they have on their consciousness. The classic buddy senario where a journey is undertaken to solve a problem and along the way a relationship grows and lessons are learned in unsuspected ways.
The Compleat Piers Anthony
Since I'm posting it as a storygame on City of If then I should have different choices at the end of the chapter that people can vote on. I could use the the list of assignments that I put in "Memoirs from Sideways in Time" for the poll.
Case #1 Universe #7816
Given: VL=a+7.5*10^14hz: LCYCLE= Mythic Membership: CHAKRA= Manipura
Known: C=1/4*p^2*F^2*L
Find: If E>T then TL
Solution: VL=b+4*10^14: LCYCLE= Solar Ego: CHAKRA= Visshuda
Assignment: Help out crew chief Carl James with his working conditions.
Enlightenment Points Awarded: 10
Case #2 Universe #7679
Given: VL=d+6*10^14hz: LCYCLE= Typhonic: CHAKRA= Svadhisthana
Known: FO=0.159/LC
Find: If E<T then TF
Solution: VL=q+6*10^14hz: LCYCLE= Biosocial: CHAKRA= Anahatta
Assignment: Support Warrior Argon in his efforts to win his lady love.
Enlightenment Points Awarded: 100
Case #3 Universe #7820
Given: VL=a+7.5*10^14hz: LCYCLE= Pranic: CHAKRA= Muladhara
Known: C=1/4*p^2*F^2*L: FO=0.159/LC
Find: If F and A<C then IV
Solution:VL=a+7*10^14hz: LCYCLE= Subtle: CHAKRA= Ajna
Assignment: Stop the Eastern Bloc from setting off a doomsday device.
Case #4 Universe #7806
Given: VL=a+5*10^14hz: LCYCLE= Mental Egoic: CHAKRA= Visshuda
Known: FO=0.159/LC: L=1/4*p^2*F^2*C
Find: If F and A>C then EV
Solution: VL=a+4*10^14hz: LCYCLE= Causal: CHAKRA= Sahasrara
Assignment: Assist student Chris Amestrly come out of his shell and interact with people easier.
Case #5 Universe #7823
Given: VL=a+6.5*10^14hz: LCYCLE= Uroboric: CHAKRA= Manipura
Known: C=1/4*p^2*F^2*L: FO=0.159/LC: L=1/4*p^2*F^2*C
Find: If E>T then L: If E<T then F: If F and A>C then EV: If F and A<C then IV
Solution: VL=a+4.5*10^14hz: LCYCLE= Solar Ego: CHAKRA= Anahatta
Assignment: Aid Princess Dejah Thoris in her plans to rescue Warlord John Carter.
Memoirs From Sideways in Time
But I think I'll change the electronic formulas to ratios of Eros to Thanatos and Involution to Evolution that was in Ken Wilber's book "The Atman Project"
Ken Wilber and Sri Aurobindo: A Critical Perspective
The ultimate psychology is a psychology of fundamental Wholeness, or the superconscious All. At any rate, let us simply note that this Wholeness…is what is real and all that is real. A radically separate, isolated and bounded entity does not exist anywhere.
It follows, then, that to erect a self-boundary or barrier, and hold a separate-identity feeling against the prior Wholeness, not only involves illusion, it requires a constant expenditure of energy, a perpetual contracting or restricting activity. This of course obscures the prior Wholeness itself, and this…is the primal repression. It is the illusory repression of universal consciousness and its projection as an inside-self vs. an outside-world, a subject vs. an object.
Because man wants real transcendence above all else, but because he cannot or will not accept the necessary death of his separate-self sense, he goes about seeking transcendence in ways, or through structures, that actually prevent it and force symbolic substitutes. And these substitutes come in all varieties: sex, food, money, fame, knowledge, power – all are ultimately substitute gratifications, simple substitutes for true release in Wholeness. …This attempt to regain Atman consciousness in ways or under conditions that prevent it and force symbolic substitutes – this is the Atman-project.
So the assignments the the GAB gives are ways to learn how to work out the substitute gratifications and give up depending on the separate sense of self to transcend to the next level of consciousness.
In order to give the people on City of If options to vote on in the poll, I'll give a few assignments but I probably will make some of them more attractive than others in so that hopefully they'll choose the one that's easier to write. Either that, or let them vote for whatever one they want then introduce Chris Amestrly and have him pull her away from her assignment with the power of the beam he creates from SLAC.
Some of the reasons why I wanted the Guardian Angel Branch in Elysium were
...Elysium knows perpetual spring and shady groves, with its own sun and lit by its own stars...were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous. ...Sometimes it is imagined as a place where heroes have continued their interests from their lives. Others suppose it is a location filled with feasting, sport, song... ..there the mortal relatives of the king of the gods were transported, without tasting death, to enjoy an immortality of bliss...
Elysium Wikipedia
That way is makes sense to have Odin as the head of it since he has a lot of experience with heroes and sending out Valkyries to get them. I reworked the list of assignments to fit Minerva options.
Case #1 Universe #6990 T= -8: TAU= 5: TEH= -2
Given: STATE= Mythic Membership: CHAKRA= Manipura: CIRCUIT= Emotional-Territorial
Known: Eros>Thanatos: Involution<Evolution
Find: BW=(FO/Q)
Solution: f=(1/2µ)x: STATE= Solar Ego: CHAKRA= Visshuda: CIRCUIT= Metaprogramming Assignment: Assist Pobak in dealing with his village elders and arrange to settle their diffences in the status quo.
Case #2 Universe #7678 T= -5: TAU= 2: TEH= 0
Given: STATE= Typhonic: CHAKRA= Svadhisthana CIRCUIT= Sociosexual
Known: Evolution>Involution Thanatos<Eros
Find: FO=0.159/LC
Solution: BW=(FO/Q): STATE= Biosocial: CHAKRA= Anahatta CIRCUIT= Neurosomatic
Support Lady Blue in making her decision between two men in search of her hand in marriage
Case #3 Universe #7807 T= -1: TAU= 1: TEH= 0
Given: STATE= Mental Egoic: CHAKRA= Visshuda CIRCUIT= Semantic
Known: Eros>Thanatos: Involution<Evolution
Find: BW=(FO/Q)
Solution: f=(1/2µ)x: STATE= Causal: CHAKRA= Sahasrara CIRCUIT= Neurogenetic
Assignment: Assist Chris Amestrly come out of his shell and interact with people easier.
Case #4 Universe #7820 T= -2: TAU= -1: TEH= 0
Given: STATE= Pranic: CHAKRA= Muladhara CIRCUIT= Emotional-Territorial
Known: Evolution>Involution Thanatos<Eros
Find: FO=0.159/LC
Solution: BW=(FO/Q): STATE= Subtle: CHAKRA= Ajna CIRCUIT= Neuroatomic
Assignment: Stop the Eastern Bloc from setting off a doomsday device.
Case #5 Universe #7823 T= 0: TAU= -2: TEH= 0
Given: STATE= Uroboric: CHAKRA= Manipura CIRCUIT= Biosurvival
Known: Eros>Thanatos: Involution<Evolution
Find: f=(1/2µ)x
Solution: FO=0.159/LC STATE= Solar Ego: CHAKRA= Anahatta CIRCUIT= Neurosomatic
Assignment: Aid Princess DT in her plans to rescue Warlord JC.
Here's the description I used in "Memoirs from Sideways in Time" of Elysium and I can expand on it for the scene in "An Angel's Destiny" for the interview with Odin
We shifted onto a manicured lawn with fountains and sculpture scattered around. The air was warm and the breeze was soft. I saw trees laden with fruit growing patterns around the garden. We got out and walked up the path through the garden. There was a peaceful feeling to the place, like a Sunday afternoon in the summer. I saw all kinds of people sunning themselves and picking fruit off of the trees. They all had blissful expressions on their faces. We came to large building with Greek architecture and flowing arches. There was a sign engraved above the marble doorway, it said 'Elysium Administration Center.' We went up the stairs and into the lobby. Seated at a desk, was a statuesque woman, who looked like she had been sculpted out of marshmallows and honey. She wore a flowing white robe and a tiara with a pale blue stone set into it on her head.
Memoirs From Sideways in Time I finished the 2nd chapter of the story and got the Flash page more like I wanted it, more like an animated comic that's pretty much like I was thinking of when I was doing "The Writer's Nightmare"
An Angel's Destiny Chapter 2
Hopefully I'll get a better response from posting it at City of If. I was thinking it might be cool to make it into an interactive CD-ROM and selling it on Cafe Press.
City of IF :: View topic - An Angel's Destiny: Chapter 2
This guy called Texas Al on City of If came up with a script for generating character profiles that looked fairly useful as a starting point in brainstorming what the personalities of your characters should be. Since I'm starting the 3rd chapter I figure I'm going to need a bunch more character's when I introduce Chris Amestrly since he's got to interact with people from Locheed and S.L.A.C.
I've only gotten 2 votes for the 1st assigment that Minerva will do for the Guardian Angel Branch but it does make sense that she would want a romantic one like helping Lady Blue pick between suitors for her hand in marriage. She could go there and meet with Nwonknu, Argon and Lady Blue then suggest the idea of them going on quests to win her hand to solve the problem.
While she's doing that I can introduce Chris in his job and daily rountine and then have him design that matter beam that will pull Minerva from her assingment by surprise, the will give the plot twist necessary to bring them together in an unexpected way.
Chris Amestrly is a machinist at Lockheed. He is 5' 6" tall with a medium build. He has short dark hair and green eyes. Chris is recovering from an addiction to BBS and is fairly shy. He still has all his fantasies and uses his computer knowledge to realize them." I need to fill in the ways that he grows from that under Minerva's guidance.
I originally plotted to have Chris as a machinist like I was at Torrello's but now that's 21 years ago, hopefully I can remember what it was like that far back.
Let's see I had just gotten out of the Air Force, moved back to California and got a studio apartment in Fremont, my dad got me a job at Torrello's so it was lomg hours with incredibly repeative tasks that required a lot of stamina and endurance with your hands getting constantly scratched up from freshly cut metal. I was just getting into programming with my Atari 800 and was learning about how machine tools operated with the 3 axis coordinates.
I was getting started on my search for a soulmate, and trying to figure out the rules of the Grande Game and getting rid of the conditioning I was put through in the Air Force. Troubleshooting the problems in my life led me to research all the methods and answers from history, religion, philosophy, physics, psychology, mysticism and esoteric disciplines to find a theory that made sense to explain it all.
It took 18 years but it was worth it to beat the long odds and finally find my soulmate. It's funny to look back at all the trials and tribulations that I had to go through to accomplish it but I did have faith in my examples like Richard Bach and Leslie Parrish, Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley. Now that I'm happily married and they are divorced I'm not sure how to feel about it. Does that mean my faith in them wasn't justified? How can that be true when I achieved the goal I so long sought after? Does that mean that they lost the ideal in the routines of daily life carried on for too long? Or that the ideal of soulmates was only temporary and couldn't stand the stress of a marriage in the long term? I prefer to think they forgot what was important and started to take the relationship for granted.
I sometimes wonder the effects of choices and different worldlines, it did seem at the end of the 80's that history was taking an upswing, MAD scenario was gone, Soviet Union collapsed, the Berlin Wall came down, Silicon dot coms were booming and it seemed that hope was blooming. But now even after I've found my soulmate they seem to be taking a downturn, stuck in another war like there was in the 60's, intolerance rampant everywhere, civil rights being trampled wholesale and apathy about all the abuses. Is it that changing worldlines to one with my soulmate in it that threw the other things off track? Or just that they didn't learn the lessons well enough in the last generation so they have to do it again to get it right? Maybe it's a more advanced level of the Grande Game now that I've gotten my soulmate I need to work on a different aspect.
I've got the animation rendered for the 1st part of chapter 3 where Minerva goes to try and help Lady Blue choose between Nwonknu and Argon. Now I have to cut to where Chris Amestrly is introduced.
I have to setup the scenario where Chris is compelled to use the particle accelerator to drag Minerva to his worldline. So I should introduce his job as a machinist at Lockheed, the people he knows that he has trouble relating to, the idea from Weird Science of making the perfect woman and combining that with the programming a template to materialize in the energy beam from S.L.A.C.
Theory: SLAC Virtual Visitor Center
I figured I can blend some of the characteristics from that generator page to make up someone to show how his life isn't working very well but I need an example, like the way they were having a fantasy about the gymnasts and got their shorts pulled down then had slurpee dumped on them in Weird Science.
Pulp-o-MaticBlake Collins is a 52 year old average, very thin straight white man with white skin, blue eyes, and red hair. Collins is an adventurous, impulsive free spirit who likes to party.
Collins seeks thrills, risk, and power-- both physically and emotionally. There are some who are in love with life, but Collins tends to tackle life, wrestle it to the floor, smother it with passionate kisses, and rip all its clothes off. Enjoys manipulating people just to see if he can... almost as much as he enjoys shocking them. Collins is intensely competitive, but for the thrill of the game, not the rewards. Therefore, when someone beats him fair and square, he respects them rather than resenting them.
Exciting, inspiring. Lives life to the fullest. Not a wuss and not a stuffed shirt.
Thoughtless, shallow. Reckless. Emotionally manipulative. Slut.
Collins might harm others deliberately for the excitement of it, and to assert his power over them. he might also harm competitors when the competition gets out of hand. Finally, he might harm bystanders as an unintended consequence of his daredevil antics.
That sounds a lot like someone that would pull practical jokes and make fun of someone for being a nerd. I'm trying to remember what kind of jokes there were when I worked at Torrello's. I do remember the foreman asking me if I had seen the movie "Revenge of the Nerds" at that time I hadn't so it didn't make as much sense as when I finally did, but I did get the joke he was trying to make.
I think I need something more relating to machining to go with that though. One of the main failings was that the forman always underbid how long the job was going to take and then took it out on the people doing the job to make up for his mistakes. Maybe setting something up so that it made it look like it was Chris's fault would be a good way to show his isolation when everyone else laughed at him for it. I could have Blake the foreman, screw with the accounting so that it made it look Chris made less parts and more that were out of tolerance to short the number needed to complete the job to make him look bad.
But that doesn't really give him reason to desire the perfect woman does it? Unless one of the people that was laughing at him was a receptionist that he was lusting over, so I'd need another character for her also. That would make it all tie together.
Beverly Wright is a 36 year old average, athletic straight white woman with tan skin, blue eyes, and brown hair. Wright is an adventurous, impulsive free spirit who likes to party.
Wright is a trend-setter and an adventurer who lives by her own rules. she is excited by innovations and is the first to try them out, indifferent to what the status quo might have to say about the matter. Wright's not one to have repressed fantasies-- she goes right out and acts upon them. Usually she is reserved in her emotions, but they sometimes burst into the open unexpectedly, especially her competitive instincts. Because of her competitiveness she can be a sore loser. She's rather bad at book learning, and may have quit school in frustration, but she enjoys hands-on learning. When she talks, she tends to mix metaphors and scramble common expressions. Origianl, iconoclastic. Can be charming sometimes, mixed with aloofness which makes the charm even more addictive. Not corruptable by the opinion of others.
Brash, thoughtless. Lack of self-control. Poor sport. Impatient.
Wright may hurt other people for the sake of winning, or as revenge for having lost to them. Also, she may feel an irrational, primal impulse to directly or indirectly do something that is hurtful, and she usually obeys her impulses.
I had an idea from that image of the sizzling school Belle I made, that when Chris gets home he could be tempted by one of Hell's Belles to give him the inspiration to build the perfect woman. Something like Elizabeth Hurley did in the movie Bedazzled, but Chris doesn't fall for the deal so he decides to come up with it on his own. I did some of the animation for it and now I think I'm ready for him to go back to Lockheed and set up the equipment for the energy beam.
School Belle
Psy gave me some advice not to make it too easy for Chris to be able to grab onto Minerva with the beam and make a few mistakes 1st. So I was going to have him materialize a gal with cyber implants and a snake tail then an emotioncon gal with angel wings before he figures out that he needs the frequencies of the chakras as a template before he can get it right.
I can use the beam prop from the Well Room in Poser to grab Minerva from trying to help Lady Blue, but I'm not sure how I can get the scene I wanted for building the perfect women from the template of the chakras. I can probably use that rose I was using in the Because you Loved me animation and color it for the different chakras as a lotus blossom but will it work to make the Inner flute, Ida and Pingala channels out of primitives? I could try modeling them in Wings3D and see if that will work for what I have in mind.
Considering I've been envisioning that scene for decades it's kind of important to get it right. Should I just get in something to keep the story moving and wait until I have time to work on doing it better?
I'm making progress on the getting the animation in Flash together for Chapter 3 but I'm still having a hard time with the text and the story to go along with it. I'm trying to come up with as descriptive imagery as I can and examples to show the story to give it more action.
I need something to give the scene with Lady Blue more depth. In the movie "Princess Bride" they did it by having Buttercup order Wesley around and him then him saying "As you wish"
Courtly love - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That web page describes the stages of courtly love:
Attraction to the lady, usually via eyes/glance
Worship of the lady from afar
Declaration of passionate devotion
Virtuous rejection by the lady
Renewed wooing with oaths of virtue and eternal fealty
Moans of approaching death from unsatisfied desire (and other physical manifestations of lovesickness)
Heroic deeds of valor which win the lady's heart
Consummation of the secret love
Endless adventures and subterfuges avoiding detection
A Catastrophe
I can probably use examples from that in the way Argon goes after Lady Blue to give it more depth. Sending her some sonnets would be good. Nwonknu giving her some gifts would help also.
Shakespeare's Sonnets.
How can my Muse want subject to invent,
While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse
Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
O, give thyself the thanks, if aught in me
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight;
For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee,
When thou thyself dost give invention light?
Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth
Than those old nine which rhymers invocate;
And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to outlive long date.
If my slight Muse do please these curious days,
The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.
Instead of expressing deep and tender feelings like Argon does, Nwonknu can try to buy her affections with jewelry and promises of power through alliances. I should go into descritions of the blue theme in the palace also to reinforce her title. Then Minerva can suggest that they perform the heroic deeds of valor and bring up that's what she's seen get heroes into Elysium so it must be valuable to prove which one is worthy.
Gravity Probe B News - Marshall Space Flight Center Space NewsI was doing some research on Lockheed for the 3rd Chapter where Chris Amestrly works and found out the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto was building a space probe to study the effects of gravity and how that relates to what the theory of relativity predicts. Something like that gives a better background for the story and the ATC is only 6 miles from SLAC so it's easy to tie them together when Chris needs to use the resources to create the matter beam. Plus it gives a better example for Blake Collins to blame Chris for making the gyroscopes out of tolerance and rag him about the lens for the Hubble Space Telescope being out of focus.
Hubble Space TelescopeI read about all this cool stuf they can do there that pushes the forefront of science and new opportunities in space but also all the other stuff they do as defense contractors like bribery and faulty accounting then wonder why they can be so short sighted. I guess it must be because they're such a huge corporation that the executives and accountants that do all the unethical stuff don't interact much with the scientists and engineers that do all the cool stuff. It would be a whole lot better for the economy and a lot more productive to make more stuff to colonize space than to waste on weapon systems that are just going to promote destruction.
Moon Base ProposalI guess it just makes the shareholders happier to see the returns for the bottom line even though it's for the short term and if they took the time to invest in more space tech they'd get a lot more sustainable return with better products. It's a shame that their focus is so narrow that they don't realize that that kind of strategy runs out of resources
ChakrasI've gotten about halfway through chapter 3 but I realized that I didn't have a way for Chris to find out about the chakras that he was missing. The easiest way is for someone to mention something about the chakras to him, wear some chakra jewelry that he asks about or see a copy of Shirley MacLaine's Innner Workout tape and get the hint that's what he needs for the template.
It does give a way to explain about the importance of frequency resonance and tell Minerva why those electronic formulas were included in her list of assigments. Chris can explain it to her in stages so she gets the idea better.
I was watching the movie Shakespeare in Love and I thought maybe I could work in a bit with a dog biting Nwonknu to show how he mistreats things. I could also do a part where Minerva is asking Chris how she'll get her wings and halo back. Chris can tell her getting in touch with Odin will work out, and she asks how he knows, he can tell her I don't know it's a mystery.
