Writing Prompts

[entity2636]

Monday will be a bad day for 'Beacons' fans...

Now why would that be, I wonder?

[dragoongfa]

Spoiler for the comic if I answer.

[Werra]

Let's wildly speculate.

1. Alex gets drunk and makes a total ass out of himself. Drunkenly coming on to Duskcrown. He wakes up next to her pet miros (male)
2. Duskcrown shanghais Alex into her crew.
3. Beryl demands a duel with pistols to third blood from Duskcrown. She accepts but declares Alex her champion in this.
4. The Umiak are coming, they are accompanied by human ships/crewmembers.
5. Duskcrown butters Alex up by losing on purpose in Crossfire before suggesting a very humiliating bet.

[dragoongfa]

Not in 'Beacons' development Werra, Patreon has the next two pages of the comic up and they will both be posted on Monday.

[Werra]

Fug...I need to check Patreon then. Hopefully there will be new Smugglows.

It was clear that Alex and crew will end up with the Barsam ever since the latest Insider update. It's not like that Beacons was in any way close to canon anyway.

[dragoongfa]

Bah, I have an outline for searching the artifacts nailed down, a loose description of Crossfire and an extended scene with Duskcrown but I don't want to hog these scenes because they are too long.

All in all I have in mind that Alex would have found a cache of military history, songs and other cultural and most importantly mission critical stuff. Crossfire I would leave vague, making Alex describe the game as 'fleet based' rather than 'ground based'. The scene with Duskcrown is better served if it comes after their initial meeting, discussion of tactics and diplomacy after they get to open up a little.

[novius]

As a side note, did you know that modern tabletop RPG's do have their roots in military planning as well? They started out as the table with the topological map and the figures for squads and divisions as well... And dice simulating the troop's performance during engagements to play through different scenarios.

Might make for an interesting scene if Fireblade or Beryl learn of that particular piece of what had been nerd culture, especially since Alex once said that humans do like to play different what-if scenarios in their media when it came to First Contact.

And, while Fireblade might have gotten her interest piqued in human literature (*cough* erotica), Beryl as a Listel would be interested in about everything human, regardless how trivial we may think something is.

[Chekist_Felix]

Monday will be a bad day for 'Beacons' fans...

Ouch. Yeah, you could say that again.

[Werra]

This took way too long. Hope I hit the right mixture between pleasurable smalltalk and hammerblows. As there are only really two people in this part, making it not a chore to read was hard.

[dragoongfa]

Don't worry, it's great.

For Wavecrest's shake Alex must convince Duskcrown to make an exception for those two. Either that or Wavecrest will be selling access to Alex in exchange for filter cleaning and other unsanitary duty.

[novius]

Don't worry, it's great.

For Wavecrest's sake Alex must convince Duskcrown to make an exception for those two. Either that or Wavecrest will be selling access to Alex in exchange for filter cleaning and other unsanitary duty.

Just to spite him for saddling her with additional duties... I think it will be a hard bargain, but Alex might convince her to try it with Beryl and Fireblade on probation.

And, Duskcrown may actually expect him to argue his point. She made an opening move, Alex did his as well, she placed a counter... like a game of Crossfire.

[Werra]

'Marrying' Beryl and Fireblade to Alex as his caretakers would be far too saccharine for the story. I'd rather see Alex being pushed by Duskcrown into meeting total strangers to teach him the Loroi ways. We do urgently need Loroi that don't want sex from him anyway.

[dragoongfa]

I agree although I would like for a mutual compromise to be reached regarding Beryl and Fireblade. I have an idea if Novius doesnt mind.

[novius]

When it comes to her demand that he learns to remotely send to even unfamiliar Loroi (and receive), that may be within her rights. But Alex may most probably put his foot down before having a complete stranger as a caretaker have that much of a say over his life. That's something Duskcrown and Stillstorm could only suggest, but not fully demand from him.

@dragoongfa - Sure, go ahead

SpoilerShow

One of my ideas would be for Duskcrown to immediately post and countersign another application for an encounter, this time with 'full privileges', daring the newly-minted caretaker to say 'no' to her. She'd pass muster if she actually shows enough pluck to post the denial of the encounter to a Tazites.

[Werra]

Have a quicky for the Frontiers as well. It might not have been the best of ideas to wear out the patience of heavily armed soldiers.

[novius]

Have a quicky for the Frontiers as well. It might not have been the best of ideas to wear out the patience of heavily armed soldiers.

But, a bad move on the away team's part. Of course things will escalate now.

[dragoongfa]

Please don't massacre the lost diral

[novius]

Please don't massacre the lost diral

A pack of highly social animals, one of them dead and another one hurt, the trainer severely hurt, fourty-eight warrior initiates armed with blades, spears and maybe one or two blow tubes, and a forest littered with traps on one side.

An away team of ... how many? Well armed, but completely unfamiliar with the area and no idea what they face, with the morale already down in the dumps.

Well, my bets would be on the diral....

But no. It won't end with a wipeout. On either side.

[Werra]

I don't expect New Frontiers ending in a bloodbath either. It could, but that's the risk the Diral took attacking. So far only Nathan has taken a hit of unspecified severity. The Diral isn't going to win this if the Mizol aren't written like complete idiots. A bunch of teenagers without any combat drill, facing armed warriors. The Mizol have a scouting advantage thanks to their abilities and modern firearms. Surprising them is not possible as they are Loroi. Also, most of them have been living in the wilds for two whole years only a few years ago. Unless Nathan touches the Diral members going close with knifes, they won't get very far.

Plus the Mizol aren't even the aggressors here. They're clearly not interested in hurting the Diral. Just..attacking them was a stupid idea from the teenagers. Using potentially deadly force on them might be the worst thing they can do now. Hurting even one of them seriously means the Diral should end in failure as rejects, as that would be attempted murder the Diral planned for weeks. Even just training a bunch of Arianesin to attack Mizol is highly questionable and fulfills any criterai of premeditated

Remember, Deinar is the planet where parents can have disobedient kids put to death.

SpoilerShow

Nobody updated New Frontiers anymore anyway. The Mizol might get pissed off, but if it ends in a deal that keeps the Diral going -likely evicted relatively unprepared from their area- then the story can go back to survival and scraping by in the wilds.

The Diral and Nathan do need to end up with the Mizol if we go by Beacons.

[dragoongfa]

The chief problem is that it moves too fast, as for the Diral attacking the warriors, Nathan would be the first one who would try to stop them. He just felt the wrath of repeater firearms and he knows what a single shot musket can do, a gun firing multiple shots at the same time?

He won't allow the others to risk it.