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« on: July 22, 2018, 06:39:54 am »
I figured I'd post these up to get feedback and maybe hook a tasty little artist.
1: Vatican Black Ops
So, for ages I've had (technically it was a collaborative idea generated by discussion with my mum (who is also a giant geek NESTED PARENTHESES!) but I've developed on it a fair bit) an idea for a comic about a Black Ops team that operate out of the Vatican, doing various morally-grey (the church, surely not!) activities, including but not limited to - putting down cults, dealing with demons, spying, discovering evidence, burning evidence, political assassinations etc.
The Vatican runs it because they're rich, but technically they are drawn from the various Christian denominations (the protestants swear they get given the shittier barracks). The idea was originally for a roleplaying game, and with a little fusion of RPG parties and the A-team, coupled with my lifelong fondness for power armour I decided to give them all exoskeletons of varying strength and bulkiness suitable for their job.
I've always been fascinated with saints and sainthood, so it didn't take long before anything more important than a lighter was powered by saintly relics. The relics all subtly (or not so subtly) bless the thing they're powering, so a radio powered by the finger bone of Saint Philip (a cheerful man throughout his life) might uplift the spirit through the saint-blessed words of the speaker while that same radio powered by a shard of the blade that slew Saint Adelbert lends an irresistible tone of command (let's ignore the fact that Adelbert got murdered for being too bossy).
It was my intention that the story progress, slowly revealing details of a conspiracy (le gasp!) of infernal nature, and introducing the various other organised or semi-organised religious Spec Ops teams like Dervishes and Bikkhu Brigades, introducing both antagonistic and awfully helpful demons and otherworldy spirits, examining the nature of belief and the way in which one can follow the tenets of their faith while still attending to their duties, or the ways in which you can stray with or without losing sight of the true path back to salvation.
2:Vessels
I was kinda annoyed when Altered Carbon came out, because it shares similar themes, and no one had heard of the book.
Another idea i've had for ages, and have slowly built upon - Vessels is a cyberpunk story, though less grimdark than is typical for the genre, that follows 3 sets of people in telling various stories about the world and the impact of the separation of mind and body. In Vessels, we've largely entered a post-scarcity era - what we would think of as middle class are now so vastly engineered and wealthy that they can more or less do and be whatever they want. Decadence and ennuie naturally follow, and for many youths their primary entertainment is crime or purchasing Vessels (bodies) from the army to go on FPS-style shootouts, which is how the west now largely handles their requirements for disposable soldiers like the penal legions of old.
The core technology at play is the ability to upload yourself into a company-owned server and stream your consciousness into another vacant body. People hire personal trainers to exercise their vessels while they gallavant about the internet or stream to new bodies for various purposes. Insurance is handled in the form of data-preservation-clauses which obligate the company responsible for you hiring out your body to keep your consciousness-data around until such time as you would've died naturally, and many are keen to get themselves killed on a job in order to be allowed to live what they feel is a better life online (though this is insurance fraud much as any other insurance scam would be). Crucially, the infrastructure required means that while you can upload your brain permanently (though digital duplication is a crime, as is remaining conscious while uploaded as a form of duplication), technology only allows one to stream into another body - we can copy neural patterns, but not physically overwrite other brains. Religious and political organisations obviously have mitts in this whole thing.
I suppose this brings us to the core - One of the three pairs focused on is made up of two law enforcement officers who investigate and resolve Vessel-related crimes (bodyjacking, failure to make good on data-preservation-clauses, preservation-fraud, duplication, criminal misuse of Vessel etc). through their work they become acquainted with two other pairs, one a middle class genetically-engineered mother and her son, the others a Vessel-class (considered a lower class, they have to work a reasonable amount in order to live a comfortable life, where working means 'hiring out your body as a Vessel while you float around cyberspace for a day') couple, one an enthusiastic adopter who would very much like to shed his mortal coil, and his partner who would rather live a real life with popcorn and sunsets etc.
Oh, and everyone in cyberspace is rendered by the animal that best represents them, as decided by their own subconscious self-image.
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I've got some neat ideas on using coloured text/text bubbles to indicate the nature of speakers, perhaps giving
readers clues as to their motivations, and yes, definitely playing with it for drama.
So, there we go. As is true for probably anyone, I've got four billion less well-developed ideas, including an adventure story about a technologically-advanced girl exploring a post-apocalyptic icescape and whatnot.
