~ Welcome to Quills ~

Jesus Christ... I am back!









What'd I miss? XD

For as long as ican come back, i have regents and stuff in the next few weeks, so i might not have long detailed posts like i have been (gladly) seeing from you guys, but all the same i will come back, i saw that me and leon disappeared in a post? interesting. SO yeah, fill me in when possible.

*lol* Man, seriously, I'm not complaining the reading part you know, I can't even begin to tell you how gratifying (?) it is for me to be able to log on and read long and really good quality posts for a change, without exaggeration it really does bring a smile to my face (yes, I am known to smile occasionally, shh, our secret! ;)) / make my day. So I'm not about to stop you, as you so elloquently put it, 'get(ting) carried away.' By all means, I'm a firm believer in striking while the iron is hot. If you're inspired and you have the time then I'm not about to stop you. Granted I also have another day to go of work before I can even stop to reorient myself in the writing frame of mind - so it works this way for both of us.


I'm quite content at the moment to sit back and wait and read until you feel ready for me to take over again. It works in this way because at least I'm not holding you up and you're not getting frustrated and the threads' still progressing which is afterall the main thing. So by all means, rant yourself silly. Sillier if that's at all applicable ;)


Now I'll shut up for two seconds and go read. Thanks again for making a sh*t day bearable ^^


And DL - as for the recap, I'm with Jess on this one. As much as I did try to write some kind of summary on my lunch break today (primarily not just for you, but as a recap in case anyone else *scoffs* was considering joining they'd have a platform of sorts to launch from) but realistically there's a lot of little things you'll miss with a summary - and let's face it the time I spend ranting about it is the time that could be better spent writing the story itself - so it's a tad counterproductive. Having said all that I still may get that summary up in the next few days if I can grab a few minutes and post it for the abovementioned purposes. I'd suggest, seeing as how this is supposed to be your baby, you of all people should knuckle down and reaquaint yourself with all of it so you can step back in to the mantle of leader again rather than a lurker on the side-lines. Not only that, but it is a little bit of a slap-in-the-face for the two of us mainly that have been really putting in the effort here if you really chose to ignore it. Just my two cents anyway, your call :)


EDIT:
@ Jess - OMG - It seems everytime I get into it the update ends! *snuffle* but yeah, am sincerely loving where this is going. I was actually surprised David did not volunteer to go with Rae and co then realised perhaps his silence and 'vacancy' is probably not that much dissimilar to Trinity/Jamie's - they both need breathing space. I'm stoked at these little nuances you throw in about all the different characters - it's the little things that are really making this work for me on an intellectual level. I could probably (and do in part) drive myself crazy overanalysing every little thing someone has said, or hasn't said, or little observations, the look on his eyes, his unusual silence, dean's hand on Jamie's shoulder, the heat in her face, this pain of Corey's in regards to Amy's abortion was just so poigniant in this it's a real heart-drop moment. Who would have thought a story basically about the end of the world gone zombified would be so... I dunno, deep? Haha (sue me, I couldn't think of a better word at the time of ranting, dagnammit!)


Oh and for the record, no I have no idea what this 'Bio-' thing you're refering to is. I'm taking it at least for this update, or in regards to the surgeon, you'll have to  introduce us save me getting it all wrong. I can deal with the consequences of what happens AFTER we meet up with him (if we even get there, never know in this story XD) but for all intents and purposes with this character, give it's potential and gravity on the current sub-plot, I could easily ruin what its taken several posts to that point to create, which would be disasterous of me, so I won't do that to you. I'm just pointing out I'm giving you free reign at this point to do with Rae what you see fit - and I'll consider it a personal challenge to try and work my way with or out of whatever situation you get her in - or not - at a later date. Do your worst *chuckles* - Ahh, all in good fun ;)


-- Edited by Ravynlee on Sunday 7th of June 2009 03:43:07 PM

Time lapse to the surgeon - from whose point of view - the scouting party, those left at the camp, or me as Rae? And give me some indication of what you had in mind. I don't start work til lunchtime tomorrow (doing a night shift) so I might, if I get something in mind, have time to pen something and hopefully post it before then. If you can hit me back. Just curious to see which direction or what in essence you want me to cover so I can help as best I can ^^

*lo* Okies. Well rather than hold you up I might try and work around something from Rae's warped POV if you feel that way inclined (that we need it). Meantimes, if you're still enthused to keep penning away rather furiously regarding Dean, Dave and co then by all means go nuts. I can't see there being any real issue if we post simultaneously. There's no way of really correlating the two posts (if you did one for The park and I did one for the road) because communications might be non-existent, or sketchy, or just plain bad reception (if we needed to excuse our way out of that at any point - thinking Wesker and his beloved two-way Radio, see? ;)) - I guess I see your point, this way we don't have the issue of there having been a week in essence of heavy drama, heavy, heavy - oh, wait, two days passed with nothing - might be a tad offputting as far as 'the flow' goes.


Hmm. I'll have to put my thinking cap on here... Haha. An actual challenge. Awesome. Let's do this...


And as far as Bioshock goes, dont believe I've ever heard of it. No matter, it's horror, good enough for me ^^


As I said, I'll do my best. Ironically enough as I reread your post I'm already getting things coming to me (love this 'thing' we've got going here, it's infectious, pardon the pun, isn't it? XD) - so yeah, expect something smallish (certaily no 16 page rant this time, not yet anyway) from me in the next 24 hours. I will deliberately keep it vague and 'on the road' so that will leave you the freedom to write the arrival, setting, the surgeon himself, all of that without constraint. And again, while you wait and if you want more to do, there's always the men folk (and Jill and Amy) back camp-wise to go over. No pressure of course, but two days will need to be explained from that POV too, remember ;)

Keep ya posted =)

@ Jess ~ I have no problem with bringing in others, but we have to be careful we don't dilute the essence of what we've already got. All this talk of comraderie is one thing, but when strangers are thrown together (as we've already seen), basic human instinct dictates stress, defensiveness and suspicion - three things that go against this idea of bonding as a cohesive unit. Not to say that it isn't possible we'll all settle down now and work as a team, quite the opposite, but I just mean that with the more people we bring in the more repetative this will become UNTIL the core members are on more friendly terms - if they ever are.


Now having said that, having him there on CB radio is a great solution. As we've already assumed he's a tad... weird now (given the current global predicament, it's no wonder) so he doesn't strike me as the type to run off and join a bunch of strangers in the hopes of helping anyone but himself. He may be a nice enough guy, don't know, haven't been 'introduced' to him yet, but for all intents and purposes, to keep this air of mystery and such about him, I think at least for now he should prefer to stay alone, that way his experiments or whatever the hell he's been doing the last few months to occupy himself won't become hindered by Jill or Amy or so on (with their air of superiority and almost blind desire for social normality again) if he were to follow us 'home' XD. And all this of course hinges on what transpires at this meeting between him, Keith, Trinity/Jamie and Rae. He may not turn out to be the friendliest of guys - then again he may be a real whackjob *shrugs* haha. Join the club in that regard I say ;)


As far as the base camp dwellers - well, whose left? Wesker, Corey, Dean and David I'm assuming? You've already written a 'lead-in' to this trio anyway in the form of Dean talking to David - but then again Jamie was supposed to have spoken to Dean to get him to talk David around into... whatever the hell guys talk about in order to get the latter to open up and stick around. Corey seems to be the most level-headed guy in this place, aside from Keith who's got an almost 'fatherly presence' in my opinion, and he's already dealt with some emotional pain that may or may not be in store for Davey. Of course, we have to be careful that all this 'male bonding' doesn't have the opposite effect it's intending. Dean's a nice enough guy but he's only really interested deep down in Jamie and I'm guessing he's deliberately 'acting' for everyone else's benefit so they don't find out his or her secrets and have them expelled from camp - or worse. If Corey tried to speak to David I can imagine David would not so subtely tell him to go self fornicate in another way because it's apparent David doesn't like authority and rebells at ths slightest hint of being told what to do by anyone - let alone from someone he's only just met. And of course David himself is in danger of becoming a liability as well - he's teetering on the edge of becomming a cardboard cut-out of that typical surly extra in the background that we're glad to see die when it happens (which it better not! At least, not for a while anyway, muahaha, hmm). But I think the way things are going it won't be long before he finally starts to open up, I do have things in mind, and I was glad to see you wrote flashes of empathy there in your last update - I think we've done well the both of us to create characters with all these separate identities and internal conflicts and have them interweave so seamlessly. Kudos for us I say!


Anyway, as far as the base-camp party goes we have enough, depending on how much you want to get into it, to keep them occupied. Don't forget the river is now a vulnerability to them, and while they wait and salvage whatever materials they can from the camp or surrounding areas to start constructing this fourth wall, the zombies won't stop coming. DL made a point of telling us these lower level zombies could communicate by growling and such - it's possible the ones that were shot were doing just that to their undead buddies lingering unseen elsewhere. Not only that, but if it turns out Rae is infected in whatever form maybe she herself was 'communicating' with these things before she was knocked out and didn't even know it - how's that for trechery, 'eh? *lol*


And one more thing, before I go, is it just me or is Mark's strange behaviour suggesting we may have another defector / traitor on our hands? Maybe it's just me but I almost cringed when it was written he was more than keen to leave camp to go scouting - If he's not trying to impress Amy or brown-nose her to win some sympathy, then I think she better watch her back too (and Jill, if she's got her back turned at any point XD). I love this... speculation and suspicion at every turn!


AND seeing as how DL is back in real life, until he catches up or starts to post again, we can always have Wesker pick up a transmission - and declare in a shocked/elated/dubious kind of way that he just heard what he thought/sounded like Jason and/or Leon on the two-way. Figures that he will have no one but the three others to tell this too, so for the most part these three really don't know who he's talking about (David does, but has always been suspicious as usual) so there's bound to be some mixed reactions here. That way we have a lead-in for DL should he want to come back in his own time and you also have something to write about, if you're stuck for ideas ;)


I should really shut up now. I only came on to check updates *giggles* Sucks I wont see ya til after Saturday (this sat or next?) but at least it gives us all some time again to digest and write more. I'm still working on something small from Rae's POV but I am trying to keep it vague - so far it's more a kind of past reflection, explaining something of her back story, with these delusional visions of what's real/not real in the back of the van. Trippy stuff but I'm going for it XD We'll see how it all comes together in the long run

-- Edited by Ravynlee on Monday 8th of June 2009 10:32:47 AM

Hahah, don't worry, man. I don't think Rav or I is completely on top of things either, but we're managing. Annoying though it was at first, having just each other to bounce ideas off of (and wait on) has actually resulted in making this a damn fine story. But then I like'em complex.

Rav - I know exactly what I'm going to do for the scouting team and Rae\Trinity\Keith (note to self, come up with a name for that group), and I could tie the guarding team in if you don't mind me switching stuff up again. *sigh* So then I just have to write it. I should have the scouting team's update up sometime in the next three hours. Hopefully.


EDIT: And so, just within my limit, I post. God, I just can't stop with the drama in this story

-- Edited by Jess on Monday 8th of June 2009 03:56:16 PM

Hahahah. I love your enthusiasm, Rav, I really do

If you've already started writing, especially, then by all means keep going. I had intended to do the very end of the journey - the last, like, two hours on the road before arriving at the good doctor's - so the rest of the time is completely open. And then of course after they arrive, it's all open. I will work on arriving and wrapping up the drama back 'home', so whenever my next post comes into contact when the intertubes, it oughta be fairly long.

@ Jess - Thankies - though you're enthusiasm is largely to be creditted for that (since I had talked about pulling out of this soon after it started), so thank you


@ DL - Dark and simple - hmm, not sure if you've noticed the size of both Jess and my individual posts but that in itself should probably answer your question. As far as adding complexity goes, well it's not as straightforward as it started out, by that I mean it's not always about zombies but we've evolved the characters' as well as having zombies in the background (though now the zombies are starting to feature more, we were working into that, you have to remember because our posts are rather detailed that time wise it's only really been a week and a bit IF THAT since at least Rae and Dave wandered into The Park and Jamie/Trinity and Dean after that, so really it's not fast-paced but it's also not dragging it's heels plot-wise, but I think somewhere in between). We have kind of added new things, a few new faces, but as was said in the posts above, because your character has been away for most of the time you as a writer have the advantage to come back in and really use this unfamiliarity to your advantage. What Jess and I have written for the most part doesn't really affect you unless you want to know everything about everything - Jason as a character has his own issues to sort out I reckon, he probably doesn't need to know who's got feelings for who, who tried to kill who, or so on UNLESS you as a writer want/need to know. Your call. As I said, just ask either Jess or myself and we'll fill you in on the details as best we can ^^


And back to you Jess *lol* (welcome to the ranting mind at work) - I have started something but as I said it's not really explaining much plot-wise so far. It's basically Rae working through her inner demons (that has been personified by Rob, for reasons that should be self-explanatory) and this thing going on between Rae and David that teeters between love/hate/fear/loathing - and then of course Rae in the van under the watchful eye of Keith, Jamie and the kitten (*lol* - does it have a name? I can't remember) - what really struck me was the simple line you wrote earlier regarding her vacant stare and whether she'd accepted her fate and Jamie wasn't so sure, THAT above all others really inspired this, kudos! - but as I said, hopefully to answer your question (and not confuse you in the mumbo-jumbo of my ranting) that my update (if I ever get back to finishing it, like you easily distracted) only encompasses that time between Rae being basically held captive in her hut to being on the road itself and lamenting her state etc. It's really not going to push the story along but basically give you another voice alonside your plentiful posts (which I'm loving btw) so you have no real risk of me ruining or conflicting with anything you have to say at any camp... that's really all.

Hope that answers questions