I made two small tweaks to Ch. 1 of “The Prisoners’ Dilemma” (aka The Kidnapping AU) – first, I’ve added the definition of the title to the top as a chapter summary, second the placement of Hermann’s chain has been altered, which at this point is a very minor change and should not require anyone to re-read the chapter (I doubt anyone remembers its placement anyway at this point).
Edit: chapter 3 is up!
So uh, ch 3 of Prisoners’ Dilemma/Kidnapping AU maaaay be…. 10,000 words long…. because I suck….
One of the challenges of putting together “The Precursors” as a regularly occurring character in a fic is that we either get… almost nothing of them dialogue-wise in Uprising except the “smartest person in the room” speech to Liwen when they drop the act and slip into the Creepy Voice, or it’s all them and we get nothing of Newt except, “I’m sorry, Hermann. They’re in my head.”
But since the film is made up of the Precursors pretending to be Newt or directing him, we kiiinda have how they “changed” him to figure how the whole “what is Newt 10 years later” vs. “what is them”? So you can either go with 1) the Precursors kinda just gave Newt directives like “end the world as effectively as you can” so his motivations are all scrambled but it’s still 99% Newt and just 1% Precursor will behind it – which means all the fancy stuff is just what he saw as necessary for that goal (basically, to blend in at Shao and maaaybe to enjoy himself a little along the way?).
Because the alternative is 2) the Precursors wanted the fancy suits and shades and penthouse apartment, which is wild to think about. Like, the Alice tank is in a bedroom with no door on it, with access to the only visible bathroom in the apartment. Which means unless Newt covers Alice up when people are over, no one can come in that apartment except Newt. It’s not for anyone except the Precursors! Not even for appearances!
So that kinda leaves us with the inevitable question: are the Precursors a bunch of dandies on their planet?? It’s not totally inconceivable, I mean, they’re part of a sophisticated multi-planetary empire. They could very well have a concept of fashion and prestige, even if it’s technically within a hive mind? Like maybe “glorifying the whole” as a thing even if individuality isn’t?
Or they can only interact with our world through Newt’s subjective memories and some input from objective reality so like… this could be Newt’s vision of success in some way which they’re interpreting as “the right way” to go about being on Earth (and oh, honey, guys, seriously. Don’t go off Newt to know what’s normal on our planet!), but they still fed into it and had to have wanted it to some extent if they’re the ones piloting all the time? Which means the Precursors wanted all this stuff? Which is kinda nuts??
The Fray’s “How to Save a Life” is a really good song for the Kidnapping AU…. and what Hermann THOUGHT he was getting into when he went to Newt’s apartment, instead of what actually happened 😬
I think ch 3 is coming together now and is in the home stretch. It’s still very rough but I’ve got an order of events now that hits the majority of the points I wanted to hit which is a huge headache to finally have over with, and if stuff is missing it’s much easier to slot it in now that there’s an overall structure. Also there’s a couple scary moments that even freak ME out
Just a tip for some people doing NaNo, but one tactic I use while trying to reach the word count is to put a “-” in the document when I’m about to do a burst of words. I write through it, maybe even write a few takes on how I want that section to go if I’m uncertain, then record the word count for that section.
After that, I move the “-” to the bottom of the document. Everything before that is now fair game for editing or moving to the note discard document. I still get the credit I’m due for the words I’ve written, but don’t need to worry about deleting or altering it to “lose” the progress I’ve made in the overall NaNo race. This way I can actually write as I usually do, which includes tweaks and touch ups as I go for a cleaner first draft, without those edits detracting from my word count.
FROM THE HEART, MAGGIE, FROM THE HEART. Ch. 3 isn’t working because you’re trying to be too fucking clever with the banter and the antagonist and the goddamn plot. Actually show us what it would be like to be in that situation and see that happening to someone you love, goddamnit, inhabit the moment instead of trying to twist it into the plot.
God if I don’t pull together Kidnapping AU ch 3 sometime soon I’m going to entirely lose my shit. I’m hyper with the need to work on this story but I just keep banging my head against how the fuck to get everything in there that needs to be in there because so much is happening at once but if I can just get through this part I’ll be on to the status quo that this fic is all about and I know everything that happens after but oijdoiadjoaisdjoijd COME ON YOU RIDICULOUS NERD SCIENTISTS IN LOVE + EVIL ALIEN HIVE MIND, WORK WITH ME HERE
Election Day from Hell is over, can’t wait to get back to writing finally, jfc
I just wrote a marriage proposal speech by Newt that’s almost a thousand words long and honestly, I don’t know what I was expecting.
I’m going over it now as I try to pull The Prisoners’ Dilemma ch. 3 together in ASAP and guys, it’s just stupidly romantic
Avelera 