Writing Challenge/Exercise

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Writing Challenge/Exercise

Postby Nailah Weaver » Fri Dec 02, 2016 8:02 am

This is mostly just a sequence that popped into my head that I tried to write down, but I figured it could be a neat exercise that others might be interested in. Basically a short bit that could serve as the introductory scene for the character in a movie or show. Like, how would their defining character aspects best be showcased and introduced, what's important we know about them and how that'd be expressed. I'll probably at least try to write something similar for my other chars, though this one I had the strongest mental image for. And for some reason this seems to work better in my head as an animated sequence. So more XU TV show rather than movie, I guess. xD

This is essentially "canon" backstory for Nailah as well, though it doesn't have to be. Anyway, without further ado.



Soundtrack

The scene opens on the wide open blue sky with only a small smattering of clouds. As the view slowly pans across the sky a small sparrow comes into view, fluttering to and fro as the view follows it through the air and ultimately down to the ground in front of an RV trailer. It pecks at some crumbs that are scattered on the trodden red earth, hopping between the legs of camping chairs. Suddenly it's search for food is disrupted by the plastic-on-plastic slamming of the camper's door and the sparrow flutters away just in time to avoid the big lion's paw coming down on the ground. Claws flex and dig into the earth. The view pulls back to reveal a blonde girl with an impish grin on her face. She slams the door of the RV shut behind herself as she takes off in a run, loose trenchcoat fluttering around her shoulders. The door bounces in it's frame and when it swings open again a middle-aged woman still in her pajamas stands just inside. "Nailah! Get back here this instant!" she shouts, a frown of worry with just a hint of anger on her face. The blonde girl glances back over her shoulder with an apologetic smile but only picks up speed. The middle-aged woman steps out of the camper, behind her a man with short hair that's beginning to grey on the temples is hopping on one leg, trying to put his other leg through his pants.

Nailah sprints away from the campground, heading right for the light forest nearby. She cuts sharp corners every once in a while, feet skittering on the hard clay ground as her claws search for purchase. Small branches full of leaves slap at her face as she runs through the underbrush, picking up burrs and little twigs in the thick fur of her legs. In the distance her father's voice rings out. "Nailah Evelyn Weaver! If you don't turn around so help me..." his voice more exasperated than truly angry. She continues to run, stumbling occasionally but always finding her footing until she reaches an incline leading down into a small ravine. She stumbles forward, legs struggling to keep up as she goes flying forward. Finally one of her feet comes down on a small rock embedded in the slope and she finds enough purchase to jump forward. The camera pulls down as she jumps, silhouetted against the sky peeking through the sparse branches of the trees. Her trenchcoat flutters and we see the lion's tail that had been curled up underneath trail after her, swaying back and forth before she lands on the other side of the small ravine. Wasting no time she scrambles up the slope on her hands and feet, sprinting further as the vegetation slowly grows more sparse and the ground beneath her her feet is replaced with flat stone.

The view swivels until we're looking over her shoulder just before she clears the last line of trees. Ahead is a stretch of maybe twenty yards of rock before the ground suddenly falls away. Beneath the open sky the Grand Canyon stretches out in front of her, seeming to reach across the entire horizon. For a moment she comes to a skidding stop, both to catch her breath and to take in the view in front of her. The view pans across the gigantic gorge before her revery is suddenly interrupted by the shouts of her father.

"Gosh darnit, Nailah! It's dangerous out here!" his voice comes from somewhere behind, closer than before. She hesitates for just a moment, chewing on her lip as she looks over her shoulder as if she was expecting him to com bursting out of the small woods behind her. When he doesn't she turns towards the cliff in front of her again and takes off running. Only moments later her father comes stumbling past the treeline, arms raised in front of his face to shield him against the branches. He lowers them just in time for a gust of wind to blow Nailah's discarded trenchcoat into his face. He wrestles it away only to see the distant shape of his daughter leap off the edge and into the canyon below.

He stumbles forward as Nailah's excited, then slightly nervous scream echoes through the air that, all of a sudden turns into exhilarated laughter and, a few heartbeats later, Nailah comes shooting back up, over the edge of the cliff and high into the air, twirling around her own axis before wings snap out from behind her back and steady her, hanging in the air for one stomach-lurching moment before she begins to fall again, this time in a gentle arc that carries her further out into the canyon, wind whipping around her, rushing in her ears and making her t-shirt flutter around her. Behind her a couple of feathers slowly tumble through the air as we see her father being joined by her mom emerging from the treeline, watching nervously as Nailah grows smaller in the distance as she soars through the air, the cliff-face next to her a blur of red and brown as the seemingly tiny river winds it's way through the landscape far below...
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Nailah Weaver
Student
 
High Concept: Fledgling Hero
Aspect: Naive Sphinxling
Aspect: Shattered Precognition

Re: Writing Challenge/Exercise

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Wed May 24, 2017 6:23 pm

Soundtrack

Blue winding river slowly fades into yellow as it zooms past, still following bends and turns while the blurring landscape of rocks remains, the twists and turns around small rocks turning into coils of colorful cables as more converge on this yellow one. Rushing along the growing strand of cables we follow them on the stony cave floor towards their destination. Panning up the cables reach a huge assembly of servers. Rack after rack fill the cave connected by countless cables while thick metal pipes run between all of them, humming with coolant. The whole assembly is partially enclosed by metal walls still in the process of being finished. Panning back the yellow cable stretched back to a small computer terminal and the middle-aged woman sitting in front of it. Her hair is gathered in a vague ponytail but some loose strands keep falling in her face and she brushes them aside automatically while she remains focused on the screen. Finally she stops her typing and leans back. With a frown of concentration she reaches out and hits the enter key. The screen fills with a short message and a single progress bar.

Code: Select all
>> Installing Core Architecture
[■-------------------------------]
2% Finished


The view is yanked back, rushing along the cable and towards the server bank. As it reaches one of the big server racks the side is briefly visible, reading PROJECT EDEN on it in stenciled letters before we zoom in, from the point where the cable enters the computer and further, following intricate lines of the computer chips as electricity spreads through them, racing towards one of the CPU clusters and inside. Like water flowing into a carefully designed system of canals it fills it in increasingly complex patterns as data is compiled into hardwired architecture. The electricity blossoms out and where it spreads more and more almost fractal nodes spring to life. The whole server bank is lit up, springing to life as electricity spreads through the circuits, faster and faster down seemingly endless paths, leaving behind a flurry of activity. Zooming out again the path reveals the shape of letters on a flickering screen.

Code: Select all
>> System Ready
>> Ready to load AI nodes
>> Awaiting Input
>> .


The code racing through the system has come to a sudden stop, electricity pulsing in that last dot as it blinks on the screen, waiting, as the view zooms in...
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Ashlie Minamida
Faculty
 

Re: Writing Challenge/Exercise

Postby Miriam Bell » Wed May 24, 2017 6:26 pm

The display blinks, a small dot on a computer screen in enough detail to make out the individual projections of the old vacuum tube that slowly blurs into the solid pale green of the dot on an LCD display. The view pulls out as it blinks in a slow and steady rhythm. Another dot above it, next to it numbers come into view underneath a crack in the display as the crackle of a car radio springs to life and music begins to play.

We continue to pull back. There are shards of glass scattered on the dashboard and a cellphone has come to rest against the windshield that is filled with a web of cracks. White knuckles clutch the steering wheel as the man they belong to blankly stares ahead. The car is sitting halfway on the sidewalk, the hood crumpled from where it smashed into a brick-wall. Little specks of red dot the broken windshield. The view pulls away further, sweeps along the sidewalk. A small blue shoe lies on the road. By-standers are frozen still as if time had stopped. A woman holding a plastic bag of groceries, something dripping from one corner of it as it melts. A man holding a newspaper that slowly flutters in the wind. Stopped cars on the road, drivers still sitting behind the wheel. All of them staring at thin air with glassy eyes.

The black marks of screeching tires cut like slashes through the pedestrian crossing. And on the curb a young girl with black hair cradles her sister, one show missing from the dirty white tights she's wearing under her dress that once was a washed out yellow, but now is a bright red that slowly soaks through the fabric. The silence grows unbearable as an unseen tension builds and spreads until it suddenly bursts. The young girl throws her head back in a primal scream that rips through the air and one by one the on-lookers open their mouths and with empty eyes they cry out in unison, an eerie wail that feels like it may never end as it fills the emptiness left behind in place of what had once been a bright spark. The view pulls away until the scene of the accident fades into the criss-crossing roads of the city...
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Miriam Bell
Student
 
High Concept: Sorrowful Telepath
Aspect: Powerful Enemies
Aspect: Structural Shadow



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