Agent Orange: A Dog-Eat-Dog Tale

[karmasoup]

ESCAPE

There was suddenly light shining down upon the group once more, and Milo knew that meant the cycle was about to start all over again. It didn’t always go the same way, but it always ended up the same... in destruction, devastation, and finally, darkness. There would be havoc, terror, carnage, and then... nothing

Comments

[bleodswean]

I really enjoyed all these character sketches! And your observant narrator. The idea that these are not companions you would choose for everyday activities, but they hold you in their hands nonetheless.

[karmasoup]

Thanks! Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if Milo gets to be better friends with Lloyd after their ordeal together. And, I guess Lloyd can thank Milo for returning the favor, after all. ;)

[theun4givables]

Definitely a great team of ragtag individuals, each with their own skills and weaknesses. I especially like when they were introduced in pairs -- you knew that the two functioned as a single unit, then. Signs of a great military team. :)

[karmasoup]

Thanks! I was trying to come up with reasons these toys would have been in these positions... most of them were pretty straightforward, and so there wasn't much to do to go there in creating characters behind them, but some of them were more fun to imagine. The ones that were similar and made obvious teams were easy to work with, because they naturally played off each other. And sometimes, some of them just "looked" in such a way that made their character just sort of jump out at me. But, I have always wanted to tell this "Agent Orange" story (though I never imagined it would be "Agent Orange" until the picture I found that showed what I needed happened to be of a very ginger dog, so that just worked out as a happy accident!) Hopefully Lloyd and Milo will be able to continue that spirit of teamwork in their newfound freedom. (Though I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't want to out military action completely "in their dust," so to speak!)

[jexia]

"bayonet calisthenics"

Bwahahaha! Great stuff, really enjoyed this piece.

[karmasoup]

Yeah, some of those plastic toys are pretty silly looking, and it was a ridiculous lot of fun coming up with reasons they were in some of those positions. Some of them are pretty straightforward, so that's why they didn't get much writeup, but the idea of using the end of a gun as a knife to charge someone, even in WWII era (which is when I think a lot of these date back to), seemed so bizarre that I had to make him a pretty eccentric character. I mean, bayonets were originally designed for weapons that had to be loaded with gunpowder, so it made sense that you wouldn't always immediately be in a position to fire the dang thing when you needed it, and at least with a bayonet on the end, you still had SOMETHING you could defend against an attack with. But, I'm pretty sure by the mid 40s that there wasn't too much pounding of black powder. Still... had fun with this... particularly once "Agent Orange" was introduced! Glad you enjoyed it! ;)

[ryl]

Oh wow, I loved this. I just about lost it when Agent Orange showed up. Now I want to go play with a box of plastic army men.

[karmasoup]

Thanks so much! I had not originally planned for the dog to be "Agent Orange," but when I went looking for a picture of a dog eating a little plastic green army man, the dog I found was just SO ginger, I couldn't resist. I never actually played with them, myself, growing up, I played with the original Star Wars action figures, and I would have had a conniption if my dog had eaten one of those! Glad you liked this, I had a lot of fun writing it.

[rayaso]

This was great! I loved the fact that it was built around the plastic soldiers and Agent Orange. Very creative.

[karmasoup]

Thanks! I've always wanted to do something like this... this topic finally gave me the excuse! ;)