You would think it would get easier
Sent off the mistakes I found on the typeset copy of ELFHOME to Baen today. It took most of the day to type them up so they'd be easy to find and clear how I wanted things fixed for the things that weren't missing italics or capitalization and such. Had drumming, so I showered and dashed out the door. Came back home dog tired. I decided instead of working on Nikki, I'd play with the twins. On the way to class, I was thinking about one important section of the twins story is that they rescue a tengu trapped in a cage.
Only when I sit down to start figuring out where the cage and who is the character, I'm kind of stumped.
I have the zen-like Jin, the motherly Gracie, Keiko the female warrior teenager, Joey the cute little boy, and Riki. Not sure what the readership thinks of Riki, I've been working hard to redeem him but I'm not sure if the readership actually like him.
So what would this new tengu be that needs to be rescued?
Not sure I want the tengu to be an adult because it would be too easy for them to take control away from the twins. Don suggests that maybe the Skin Clan is playing with mind control magic and this is an obedient slave until the twins break a spell on him -- but I'm not sure I want to go down that route.
On the same token, really don't want a child that the twins need to take care of.
Another girl, 13-17, would make the story girl heavy and kind of duplicates Keiko.
The question could be "why is the Skin Clan holding the tengu prisoner?" One possibility is that in order for Riki's family other than Joey to slip through the oni/skin clan's fingers, a person pretended to be Keiko. Keiko is one of the Chosen bloodlines and through that family, the oni could possibly control all of the tengu. There's also a chance that the oni/skin clan are trying to do something along the lines of baiting Providence. There's a question of how Providence created his Chosen and how do they have power over all the tengu.
I have the weird idea of a boy disguised as a girl, complete with long hair and very gender neutral ways. The problem with this is that the twins are very nonsexual and any gender oddness really wouldn't be that noticed. This is probably just too much anime influencing me.
A very scrappy boy might be interesting. Not that bright, very good at fighting, slightly intimidated by the twins because hitting them wouldn't be the solution...and that's how he problem solves.
I suppose I could limit him by having him not from Earth. He's from Onihida. He speaks Oni. He doesn't have a clue how machines work or where the hell Pennsylvania is. Of course this would mean I would need to translate everything to Chinese, and I hate that. It would give me more of a window into Onihida, but I've set up that everything from Onihida has been raised in a more kill to survive mindset. Riki is part of the California tengu, and thus very non-oni.
Maybe I need to create a very complicated new story thread for the tengu which this person is part of. One that might threaten the world order of Elfhome. Hmmm.
So, I have a tengu in a cage and no idea what direction to go with this character. One would think I could create a side character easier than this.
Only when I sit down to start figuring out where the cage and who is the character, I'm kind of stumped.
I have the zen-like Jin, the motherly Gracie, Keiko the female warrior teenager, Joey the cute little boy, and Riki. Not sure what the readership thinks of Riki, I've been working hard to redeem him but I'm not sure if the readership actually like him.
So what would this new tengu be that needs to be rescued?
Not sure I want the tengu to be an adult because it would be too easy for them to take control away from the twins. Don suggests that maybe the Skin Clan is playing with mind control magic and this is an obedient slave until the twins break a spell on him -- but I'm not sure I want to go down that route.
On the same token, really don't want a child that the twins need to take care of.
Another girl, 13-17, would make the story girl heavy and kind of duplicates Keiko.
The question could be "why is the Skin Clan holding the tengu prisoner?" One possibility is that in order for Riki's family other than Joey to slip through the oni/skin clan's fingers, a person pretended to be Keiko. Keiko is one of the Chosen bloodlines and through that family, the oni could possibly control all of the tengu. There's also a chance that the oni/skin clan are trying to do something along the lines of baiting Providence. There's a question of how Providence created his Chosen and how do they have power over all the tengu.
I have the weird idea of a boy disguised as a girl, complete with long hair and very gender neutral ways. The problem with this is that the twins are very nonsexual and any gender oddness really wouldn't be that noticed. This is probably just too much anime influencing me.
A very scrappy boy might be interesting. Not that bright, very good at fighting, slightly intimidated by the twins because hitting them wouldn't be the solution...and that's how he problem solves.
I suppose I could limit him by having him not from Earth. He's from Onihida. He speaks Oni. He doesn't have a clue how machines work or where the hell Pennsylvania is. Of course this would mean I would need to translate everything to Chinese, and I hate that. It would give me more of a window into Onihida, but I've set up that everything from Onihida has been raised in a more kill to survive mindset. Riki is part of the California tengu, and thus very non-oni.
Maybe I need to create a very complicated new story thread for the tengu which this person is part of. One that might threaten the world order of Elfhome. Hmmm.
So, I have a tengu in a cage and no idea what direction to go with this character. One would think I could create a side character easier than this.