Holy shit. I feel.. guys, I feel like writing DCA. I feel like writing DCA again. I feel like, at the very least, finally writing an ending for it. In the meantime, let me make the necessary post describing it.
Dark Chao Adventures
So waaaay back in 2005 (yeah, this was way back), I was a wee ten-year-old. I randomly felt the urge to write! So I found a forum (Chao Civic), found their fanfic section, and started a topic:
Dark Chao Adventures
All I can say is, Episode One: Chao In Space...
I got a reply shortly after. "ooh i cant wait!" shadowhalo, I believe, was the poster's name.
Now, here I will stop to explain what chao are for those not quite "in the know." Back at the turn of the century, Sonic Team released Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast, and later sequel Sonic Adventure 2. Both games got Gamecube ports years later. Both games had these optional little "chao" features which were basically a sort of.. breeding simulator. You could have multiple gardens filled with up to eight chao each, and.. here. Click that for the Wikipedia page; it'll do a better job at describing them than I can.
And see, a Dark chao is basically a chao that you raise with certain characters so it looks evil. But they're really just adorable. And they have their own garden called the "Dark Garden." When I was, like.. seven-ish, I had my own garden full of Darks. But Nathan, my brother, wanted to delete the chao from our memory card to make room for more games. I didn't really care. xD
Cut to May 2005, I'm remembering these chao, and I decide to make a little script in memory of the little dudes. I come up with everything completely on the spot, including the fact that it's a series. I had no idea at all where the fuck I was gonna go with it. So I just improvised!
I came up with, over the course of seven years, eight seasons. The first five seasons had eight episodes each, the sixth had ten, and the seventh had twenty-nine. Yeah. xD The eighth wound up only having one, as that was when I just stopped writing and focused on other things. Like Fearblogs.
So here, we have eighty episodes of a series you guys probably don't know much about. Let me try to give rough synopses.
Season One: Shade and Chao (2005): This stuff is really badly-written. I was ten. Though from the fifth episode onward, I started to realize I could actually come up with original plots, and the quality of the episodes started to improve greatly! This season had a very distinct Spongebob-meets-Invader ZIM really fucking cheesy and childish style to it. I was ten. <_<;;; Each episode had, on average, four "chapters." Each chapter was very short. Some had five. The season finale had eight chapters, I think.
Season Two Beta (2005): I started to get ambitious. Came up with a season-wide story arc involving a cast of antagonists called "the MILKMAN and Friends" and of protagonist Dark trying to get the seven Chaos Emeralds. A few episodes in, Chao Civic shut down and I lost my records of this season (though I was smart enough to save the first one on notepad!).
Season Two: Dark and Mephiles (2006): A year later, I start writing a blog and I remember this thing, so I decide to bring it back. I write a new second season with blackjack and hookers and shit. This was a little better in terms of quality, and I actually wrote some legitimately funny stuff. The three-part season finale involved a trip to the future, and some actually remotely-creepy scenes! My first experimentations with horror!
Season Three: The Beta Avengers (2007): I joined a new forum: CHAO TALK. This would be where I would write for a few years, and this would also be where I met a man that would introduce me to Fentzy and Jane. But that comes much later. For now, I made Season Three. These episodes had me experimenting more, figuring out what I wanted to write, what I enjoyed writing. Highlights included the "Mysterious Stardust" serial (three mystery stories that built up to a return of a foe from the Season Two Beta), the introduction of the Beta Avengers (a recurring group of antagonists that want to make sure the Season Two Beta got.. well, avenged), and the season finale "The Chao World" (my first ever 'feature-length' script, the length of three entire episodes!). By posting on Chao Talk, I also got plenty of fans. :DDDD
Season Four: Purflee and Luis (2007): So "The Chao World" was originally gonna be about.. eight times as long. But I wanted to release the general gist of things now, so I released it as a twelve-chapter finale and simply had the rest of the story be spread out through the next season. In it, the chao are lost on a strange world, in a strange city. Fun fact for you Rapture fans: The city they're stuck in is pretty much the embodiment of the secretcity maps from Sven Co-op, so this is the city that inspired Xanadu. It all concluded with, like.. crossovers with EarthBound and an exciting finale battle with the MILKMAN, head of the Beta Avengers. This season also introduced "third-party/freelance chao," or the chao of my fans'! As a result, this season was the fan-favourite for a while.
Season Five: Echo and Red (2007): The chao had now returned to their gardens after that wild adventure, and now one of the Beta Avengers, a Dark/Fly chao named Echo, was ominously flying over the Hero Garden, waiting for the right time to.. do something. This season was my attempt at writing "old-fashioned" episodes, simple episodic stuff, but I wound up realizing I love writing serial-based stories, so even the most standalone stories were connected by story arcs. I also experimented with playing with my readers' emotions, writing what I considered to be the "saddest episode ever." The season finale was a two-parter taking the story of Portal and expanding it into.. well, I don't know. xD It just expanded upon the ending.
DCAHall: Pelottaa Scary Stuff (2007): This was a standalone script serving as DCA's first ever Halloween special. Fans adored it, and I actually wrote some relatively-creepy stuff!
Season Six: The Grey Journey (2008): I had actually been building up this season ever since Season Three. It was gonna be an epic journey, playing on the themes of the Season Two Beta, starring main protagonist Shade as he traveled through several video games in search of seven "chaos drives," all while defeating the four most prominent members of the Beta Avengers. And it was! It was the most epic story I had ever written, but no one was around for it. All my fans left Chao Talk between seasons. ;__; I wound up writing entirely for myself, which gave me ample opportunities to experiment with whatever I wanted. I wrote some of the longest scripts I had ever made, some rather interesting original stories, and some pretty clever situational comedy based on the worlds the video games had established, and I played on as many themes I had established in the earlier seasons. I even had the season finale extend to two more episodes, making this ten-episode season the longest season yet. And its final episode was the exciting Episode Fifty! :D
DCAHall2: Gears n' Roses (2008): Another standalone script, this was the second Halloween special! This was also the single longest script I had ever written, coming in at around 144 kilobytes. Takes a good three-or-four hours to read, I'd say. This script was me taking Gears of War and making it a lot more.. well, scary. And it was legitimately scary at times! But again, people weren't really around to read it.
DCA09: The Secret City (2009): Behold, a script that didn't really belong anywhere! This was my transition from the cheesiness of Seasons One-Six to the epic scale of Season Seven. This was, for all intents and purposes, where I grew the beard. This standalone epic script, coming in at around 237-ish kilobytes, taking a good five hours to read, was about the chao finding themselves back in the city of Season Four. It was an exciting and rather-creepy ontological mystery, and it lends itself to a follow-up, possibly a sequel. Once the chao were done with the secretcity maps, I threw in as much of an original plot as I could come up with, and.. boy, was it good. Again, I don't particularly know anyone who read it. Maybe one person.
Season Seven: The End/The Veteran's Committee (2008-2011): Here it is. After the incredible adventures of the previous stories, the chao were back in their gardens and living normal lives. I wrote a couple episodic-comedy scripts before realizing that nobody was reading this shit, and I loved writing the epic adventures. So I took Season Seven and applied seven pounds of awesome to it. I had, at one point, planned on it having only eight episodes, with the latter half of the season taken up by a DCA rendition of Metal Gear Solid 2. But I quickly realized eight episodes was not enough time to tell the story of this season, so I came up with the plot of a new team of antagonists: The Veteran's Committee, who are out to end the show by any means necessary. I introduced a new main protagonist: Shadow the green Dark chao, who was only a minor character throughout the show so far. I threw him in with my usual main protagonists, making this new story revolve around him. He had to assemble seven chaos drives of his own to stop the show from ending, but little did he know, there were much darker forces at work dwelling beneath the shaded veils of the adventures.
Season Seven grew to last not a set number of episodes, but rather "as long as it takes for Shadow to stop the Veteran's Committee." He ventured through Metal Gear Solid 2; Half-Life 2; an original creepypasta introducing the slender man to the series; a bizarre hodge-podge of Bioshock, all the themes of the earlier seasons, and DCA09; an original feature-length horror story playing on the themes introduced in the earlier creepypasta and introducing many more; popular source mod Nightmare House 2; and an original feature-length adventure taking plots from as much prog as I could squeeze into the story. The season finale, a re-enactment of Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, ended the season with narrator-- myself-- informing Shadow every reason why the show really should end. But I made sure to let him go on one last epic adventure before it all would come to a close.
DCAHall3: Sinister Serials of the Dark (2010): This epic script, standalone as it was, was not quite as standalone as the rest. This had three adventures in it, all adventures taking place in Season Seven. I actually read this entire script aloud in a podcast, and it took six hours. The main attraction was the second story, a five-act tale of the main protagonists exploring one hell of an eldritch location: the forest of Sancheria. This was one of the most consistently-scary stories I have ever written, and it is currently the longest single script in all of DCA. Next to Rapture, this is my favourite story I have ever written.
Season Eight (2011): One single episode was written continuing the adventure. I set up one hell of a story, but I stopped after that. :c
There, that's the rough synopsis of the entire show so far. Dark Chao Adventures has been one of the greatest things in my life. It is such a grand story, and it has offered so much experimentation for my writing. I would not be anywhere near as good a writer as I am if it weren't for DCA. I certainly wouldn't be able to write Rapture at the consistently-good quality it is.
And believe me, that was just the main series. There were quite a few spin-offs, bonus stories within the universe, shorts, even a text-adventure, and even a full twenty-mission RP!
You can read all of this at the official Dark Chao Adventures website. Except for Season Eight, which you can find here. I would love to have new readers. This story was such a huge part of my life. Rapture is its spiritual successor, and I think you'll see that if you read it, especially the later seasons.
And yes. I definitely want to finish this story. EDIT: I did, and here's the summary of the entire plot. And part two of that.
Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Friday, February 24, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
What is "The Dictionary of Jordan?"
On the right, you'll find a list of blogs and shit. Here's a new one.
The Dictionary of Jordan
So I was just chilling, minding my own, when I came upon an entry in The Archive mentioning "dimensional bleeding" and an interview with Dia and stuff. I read the entry explaining dimensional bleeding, and I had a fucking aneurysm of anger.
I started a new blog. It would be an OOG blog explaining, in posts, exactly every single thing I hate about literature, every reason why I am pretentious about writing, and maybe some rants not related to writing. I didn't want to put it in here because.. I decided this blog was best as a more.. I dunno, objective blog? This blog is better for giving you links to everything and for describing things and informing you on my day-to-day activities or something. This new blog is for my thoughts to roam free. This is partially inspired by Something Generic. And like Something Generic, I am going to have something to say about everyone.
You can find The Dictionary of Jordan here.
The Dictionary of Jordan
So I was just chilling, minding my own, when I came upon an entry in The Archive mentioning "dimensional bleeding" and an interview with Dia and stuff. I read the entry explaining dimensional bleeding, and I had a fucking aneurysm of anger.
I started a new blog. It would be an OOG blog explaining, in posts, exactly every single thing I hate about literature, every reason why I am pretentious about writing, and maybe some rants not related to writing. I didn't want to put it in here because.. I decided this blog was best as a more.. I dunno, objective blog? This blog is better for giving you links to everything and for describing things and informing you on my day-to-day activities or something. This new blog is for my thoughts to roam free. This is partially inspired by Something Generic. And like Something Generic, I am going to have something to say about everyone.
You can find The Dictionary of Jordan here.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
What is "Topography Genera Center East?"
Off the side of the blog, you may notice a gadget referring to itself as my "online resume." On it are a series of links to various works of mine. It's not complete, despite what it may tell you. I don't remember all my works, and there are bound to be a few I don't even want to share. But in the meantime, I had may as well describe what each link actually links to.
Topography Genera Center East
Not even two weeks after returning to England in December of 2011, I was left with only Rapture to keep me busy in terms of writing. I really wanted to write more, though. Hell, I had a lot of things about EAT I never got the chance to fully write about. So I brainstormed ideas for a new story, and I came up with something inspired by the likes of Still Remains Within, The Archive, Channel Fear, and a slew of other random inspirations.
I made the sequel to Jordan Eats Normally Now. Of course, just as Jordan Eats before it had pushed the experimental boundaries of Fearblogs and inspired many (or so I'm told!), I wanted to make sure Topography Genera featured just as many surprises.
Topography Genera is the first Fearblog I have ever written as a collaborative act. I am cowriting the blog with alliterator (of Ontological and Channel Fear fame) and newcoming Fearblogger Cadet (official artist for OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING, creative art head for Jordan Eats).
DJay32, myself, will be writing as Jeremy Luther, desk jockey for the Topography Genera Center. ..oh ha "desk jockey," DJ. In the facility, he has been designated the codename "Liquid Len." I am essentially the creative head, but I'm trying my best to distribute control of the story among all three of us.
Cadet will be writing as Ellen Varangi, fellow desk jockey, codenamed "Duchess." She will also be providing most if not all of the art.
alliterator will be writing as Stanford Milgram, head of the medical provisions for the desk jockeys. He is codenamed "Doctor Cloud." alliterator's already helped me so much with ideas, and will be providing.. some stuff.
Divided, we stand. United, we fall. ..in a good way.
Plot-wise, the blog talks about the Topography Genera Center, East division. It's a Fear-research facility. I have rough ideas for where the plot will go, but I can't share them here yet.
You can find the blog here.
Topography Genera Center East
Not even two weeks after returning to England in December of 2011, I was left with only Rapture to keep me busy in terms of writing. I really wanted to write more, though. Hell, I had a lot of things about EAT I never got the chance to fully write about. So I brainstormed ideas for a new story, and I came up with something inspired by the likes of Still Remains Within, The Archive, Channel Fear, and a slew of other random inspirations.
I made the sequel to Jordan Eats Normally Now. Of course, just as Jordan Eats before it had pushed the experimental boundaries of Fearblogs and inspired many (or so I'm told!), I wanted to make sure Topography Genera featured just as many surprises.
Topography Genera is the first Fearblog I have ever written as a collaborative act. I am cowriting the blog with alliterator (of Ontological and Channel Fear fame) and newcoming Fearblogger Cadet (official artist for OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING, creative art head for Jordan Eats).
DJay32, myself, will be writing as Jeremy Luther, desk jockey for the Topography Genera Center. ..oh ha "desk jockey," DJ. In the facility, he has been designated the codename "Liquid Len." I am essentially the creative head, but I'm trying my best to distribute control of the story among all three of us.
Cadet will be writing as Ellen Varangi, fellow desk jockey, codenamed "Duchess." She will also be providing most if not all of the art.
alliterator will be writing as Stanford Milgram, head of the medical provisions for the desk jockeys. He is codenamed "Doctor Cloud." alliterator's already helped me so much with ideas, and will be providing.. some stuff.
Divided, we stand. United, we fall. ..in a good way.
Plot-wise, the blog talks about the Topography Genera Center, East division. It's a Fear-research facility. I have rough ideas for where the plot will go, but I can't share them here yet.
You can find the blog here.
Monday, November 7, 2011
What is "OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING?"
Off to the side of this blog, you may spot a gadget referring to itself as my "online resume." On it are a series of links to various works of mine. It's not complete, despite what it may tell you. I don't remember all of my works, and there are bound to be a few I don't even want to share. But in the meantime, I had may as well describe what each link actually links to.
OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING
Quite a while ago, there were these "rumours" going around that the world was gonna end on May 21st, 2011. It was some Christian in Florida or something named Harold Camping; he was saying that "Rapture" was coming at 6 PM on that day. I don't know if anyone believed him, but when the day finally came around... suffice to say, everything was fine.
On May 21st, 2011, I came up with an idea while talking with a friend of mine on AIM, a friend I call "Fentzy." She posted, as an AIM status, "GOD THE RAPTURE BURNS." I paraphrase. We wound up having a discussion about the Rapture phenomenon that was (sarcasm)totally(end sarcasm) going on around us. It was then that I came up with an idea I'm surprised not more people did: Write a journal telling of my struggles to stay alive as all the sinners of the world are cast into Hell.
So I went on Facebook, and I opened up a new note. I titled it "OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING (Cyborn B: The Decade of Rapture) Or 'How I Survived the Apocalypse.'" I began writing a journal taking place between 11:59 PM on May 20th and 6:00 PM on May 21st. It involved myself as I saw the sky turn red, cats grow into demonic spider-like beings, I made some social commentary, I fought The Rake, and I discovered a portal to another dimension. ...actually, the note featured a lot of genuinely appealing things. Like Cockroach Jesus, who is exactly as he sounds: a man-sized cockroach with the head of Jesus Christ.
The note became a surprise hit, attracting the attention of people who would normally never read my stuff, and then I realized that "Rapture" was allegedly coming at 6 PM Eastern time, which was 11 PM my time. So I decided to make a sequel note, extending fictional Jordan's journey to just after the story reached 11 PM. I really took the time to experiment with my writing, adding situations more imaginative than I thought I could do, pulling off tropes I'd only read about before, and throwing in an ending that was more comedic than religious. I was genuinely proud of my work, and the reception was more than warm.
I was going to end it there. That's when another good friend of mine, a mister Danny Finnegan, informed me that Harold Camping was restating himself. Rapture was said to only be beginning; it wouldn't fully arrive until some time in October.
I made the decision that would change my artistic future forever. I decided to extend OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING. I wasn't entirely sure where the story would go, but I was sure I wanted to keep going with it. My first thought was to expand upon the fact that The Rake was present in the first log. Why not say it's a Fearblog? So I decided to work the Fears in the story.
Note: There's a lot of story-related production information that I will not disclose here at the moment, as the plot is still ongoing and to release the information here would be giving spoilers I don't want to disclose.
Before long, I had one of the most intense and promising plots I'd ever imagined. I had a legitimate cosmic horror story on my hands. I had a topical plot, above all else. And I had a definite fanbase. I made a few more Facebook notes before realizing that, in order to make more fans, I'd have to circulate the story on other websites. So I decided to give the story its own blog. But Blogger didn't feel right, so I tried giving Tumblr a shot.
I transferred the Facebook notes into an organized Tumblr format, and then I set out to write future logs on the blog. But I still needed one thing in order for it to feel right.
I put on my slendercoat, my trilby, my purple scarf, and my 3D sunglasses, and then I grabbed my Guitar Hero II-brand Gibson X-Plorer guitar controller. I went downstairs and asked my mother if she could take a photograph of me posing with "Tiger Stripes," my guitar (that I had also sprayed with a little ketchup, to give off the illusion of a bloody weapon). I put the photograph on the Tumblr; now my story had visualisation to add to it.
Every entry is written in an almost Twitter-like stream-of-consciousness style, and the reader is asked to keep a willful suspension of disbelief that Jordan can somehow write in his journal in some of the most bizarre of times. There has been an entry for every day since May 20th, 2011 (except for May 22nd), and I intend on there being one for every day until October 21st, 2011.
Shortly before October 21st, Harold Camping suddenly changed his mind and said no one can define when the world's gonna end. So Camping's story ends with a whimper, and OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING's story lives on.
The overall plot is divided into four acts. The table of contents can be found here.
Act I: The Coming of the Four Rakes
Our narrator meets up with a strange girl named Donnie, and the two set out to search England for a safe haven from this "Rapture." On the way, they discover that there are these portals called "rabbit holes," eldritch creatures of all sorts of sizes and threat levels, survivors who may or may not be as insane as the beasts scattering the planet, and that Rapture is not here yet. But it's coming. Meet Mistress, May 20th-July 4th.
Act II: The Seven Ciphers of the Blind Man's Book
Jordan and Donnie have arrived in America and met up with fellow youths Danny and Fentzy. The group must search the States for the closest thing to a world-saving lead they have: seven mysterious phenomena simply referred to as "Ciphers," all scattered deep within the other universe. Can they decipher the ciphers before they are hunted down by the Fears and before Rapture arrives? Meet Fentzy, July 5th-August 7th.
Act III: The Duels of the Knights of Xanadu
With the decoding of the Ciphers came seven legendary figures known as "the Knights of Xanadu." The prophecy goes that Jordan has to duel them all, but with the protagonist party at its full number of six, the kids are finding it hard to save the world without stepping on each other's toes and hearts! Things get obfuscated further when several new Fears appear completely out of nowhere, and Jordan has to settle conflicts among his friends and the eldritch abominations populating the apocalypse! Meet the Neonate, August 8th-September 15th.
Act IV: The Hunt of the Beast and the Harlot, The Seven Beacons, and The Terminal Coming of Rapture
The protagonists have discovered the meaning of "Rapture," and now their hopes are running slim. As twisted figures hunt to bring the end of the world, The Beast returns to his people and hunts for his wife, and the rabbit holes cover entire countries, the question now is whether Jordan can do what the prophecies ask of him. Meet The Beast, September 16th-October 21st.
The whole website has a slew of bonus features, including critical acclaim, promotional artwork, and even fanart.
OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING
Quite a while ago, there were these "rumours" going around that the world was gonna end on May 21st, 2011. It was some Christian in Florida or something named Harold Camping; he was saying that "Rapture" was coming at 6 PM on that day. I don't know if anyone believed him, but when the day finally came around... suffice to say, everything was fine.
On May 21st, 2011, I came up with an idea while talking with a friend of mine on AIM, a friend I call "Fentzy." She posted, as an AIM status, "GOD THE RAPTURE BURNS." I paraphrase. We wound up having a discussion about the Rapture phenomenon that was (sarcasm)totally(end sarcasm) going on around us. It was then that I came up with an idea I'm surprised not more people did: Write a journal telling of my struggles to stay alive as all the sinners of the world are cast into Hell.
So I went on Facebook, and I opened up a new note. I titled it "OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING (Cyborn B: The Decade of Rapture) Or 'How I Survived the Apocalypse.'" I began writing a journal taking place between 11:59 PM on May 20th and 6:00 PM on May 21st. It involved myself as I saw the sky turn red, cats grow into demonic spider-like beings, I made some social commentary, I fought The Rake, and I discovered a portal to another dimension. ...actually, the note featured a lot of genuinely appealing things. Like Cockroach Jesus, who is exactly as he sounds: a man-sized cockroach with the head of Jesus Christ.
The note became a surprise hit, attracting the attention of people who would normally never read my stuff, and then I realized that "Rapture" was allegedly coming at 6 PM Eastern time, which was 11 PM my time. So I decided to make a sequel note, extending fictional Jordan's journey to just after the story reached 11 PM. I really took the time to experiment with my writing, adding situations more imaginative than I thought I could do, pulling off tropes I'd only read about before, and throwing in an ending that was more comedic than religious. I was genuinely proud of my work, and the reception was more than warm.
I was going to end it there. That's when another good friend of mine, a mister Danny Finnegan, informed me that Harold Camping was restating himself. Rapture was said to only be beginning; it wouldn't fully arrive until some time in October.
I made the decision that would change my artistic future forever. I decided to extend OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING. I wasn't entirely sure where the story would go, but I was sure I wanted to keep going with it. My first thought was to expand upon the fact that The Rake was present in the first log. Why not say it's a Fearblog? So I decided to work the Fears in the story.
Note: There's a lot of story-related production information that I will not disclose here at the moment, as the plot is still ongoing and to release the information here would be giving spoilers I don't want to disclose.
Before long, I had one of the most intense and promising plots I'd ever imagined. I had a legitimate cosmic horror story on my hands. I had a topical plot, above all else. And I had a definite fanbase. I made a few more Facebook notes before realizing that, in order to make more fans, I'd have to circulate the story on other websites. So I decided to give the story its own blog. But Blogger didn't feel right, so I tried giving Tumblr a shot.
I transferred the Facebook notes into an organized Tumblr format, and then I set out to write future logs on the blog. But I still needed one thing in order for it to feel right.
I put on my slendercoat, my trilby, my purple scarf, and my 3D sunglasses, and then I grabbed my Guitar Hero II-brand Gibson X-Plorer guitar controller. I went downstairs and asked my mother if she could take a photograph of me posing with "Tiger Stripes," my guitar (that I had also sprayed with a little ketchup, to give off the illusion of a bloody weapon). I put the photograph on the Tumblr; now my story had visualisation to add to it.
Every entry is written in an almost Twitter-like stream-of-consciousness style, and the reader is asked to keep a willful suspension of disbelief that Jordan can somehow write in his journal in some of the most bizarre of times. There has been an entry for every day since May 20th, 2011 (except for May 22nd), and I intend on there being one for every day until October 21st, 2011.
Shortly before October 21st, Harold Camping suddenly changed his mind and said no one can define when the world's gonna end. So Camping's story ends with a whimper, and OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING's story lives on.
The overall plot is divided into four acts. The table of contents can be found here.
Act I: The Coming of the Four Rakes
Our narrator meets up with a strange girl named Donnie, and the two set out to search England for a safe haven from this "Rapture." On the way, they discover that there are these portals called "rabbit holes," eldritch creatures of all sorts of sizes and threat levels, survivors who may or may not be as insane as the beasts scattering the planet, and that Rapture is not here yet. But it's coming. Meet Mistress, May 20th-July 4th.
Act II: The Seven Ciphers of the Blind Man's Book
Jordan and Donnie have arrived in America and met up with fellow youths Danny and Fentzy. The group must search the States for the closest thing to a world-saving lead they have: seven mysterious phenomena simply referred to as "Ciphers," all scattered deep within the other universe. Can they decipher the ciphers before they are hunted down by the Fears and before Rapture arrives? Meet Fentzy, July 5th-August 7th.
Act III: The Duels of the Knights of Xanadu
With the decoding of the Ciphers came seven legendary figures known as "the Knights of Xanadu." The prophecy goes that Jordan has to duel them all, but with the protagonist party at its full number of six, the kids are finding it hard to save the world without stepping on each other's toes and hearts! Things get obfuscated further when several new Fears appear completely out of nowhere, and Jordan has to settle conflicts among his friends and the eldritch abominations populating the apocalypse! Meet the Neonate, August 8th-September 15th.
Act IV: The Hunt of the Beast and the Harlot, The Seven Beacons, and The Terminal Coming of Rapture
The protagonists have discovered the meaning of "Rapture," and now their hopes are running slim. As twisted figures hunt to bring the end of the world, The Beast returns to his people and hunts for his wife, and the rabbit holes cover entire countries, the question now is whether Jordan can do what the prophecies ask of him. Meet The Beast, September 16th-October 21st.
The whole website has a slew of bonus features, including critical acclaim, promotional artwork, and even fanart.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
What is "Memories of a Time Beyond?"
Off to the side of this blog, you may spot a gadget referring to itself as my "online resume." On it are a series of links to various works of mine. It's not complete, despite what it may tell you. I don't remember all of my works, and there are bound to be a few I don't even want to share. But in the meantime, I had may as well describe what each link actually links to.
Memories of a Time Beyond
At one point towards the end of my time in England, around midsummer 2011, I got bored of being trapped with all the same blogs, so I decided to make a quick short story to tide myself over. I came up with the idea of making a blog about the Fear known as The Choir, much as how Jordan Eats Normally Now was about the Fear called EAT.
I made a few posts every now and then, but I never really 'clicked' with the story until tonight, as a matter of fact. In fact, tonight I wrote.. the latter half of the whole blog, I'd say. And now that it's over, I decided to post about it here.
The story is of a girl named Polly who tries to lose herself in nostalgia, but quickly grows to trust her blog with a much more personal story. I don't want to spoil much so soon after finishing the thing, but to put it vaguely, it's psychological horror with not really all that much supernatural stuff. I'd go as far as to say there is no supernatural stuff in it at all.
You can find it here.
Memories of a Time Beyond
At one point towards the end of my time in England, around midsummer 2011, I got bored of being trapped with all the same blogs, so I decided to make a quick short story to tide myself over. I came up with the idea of making a blog about the Fear known as The Choir, much as how Jordan Eats Normally Now was about the Fear called EAT.
I made a few posts every now and then, but I never really 'clicked' with the story until tonight, as a matter of fact. In fact, tonight I wrote.. the latter half of the whole blog, I'd say. And now that it's over, I decided to post about it here.
The story is of a girl named Polly who tries to lose herself in nostalgia, but quickly grows to trust her blog with a much more personal story. I don't want to spoil much so soon after finishing the thing, but to put it vaguely, it's psychological horror with not really all that much supernatural stuff. I'd go as far as to say there is no supernatural stuff in it at all.
You can find it here.
Monday, September 26, 2011
What is "Jordan Eats Normally Now?"
Off to the side of this blog, you may spot a gadget referring to itself as my "online resume." On it are a series of links to various works of mine. It's not complete, despite what it may tell you. I don't remember all of my works, and there are bound to be a few I don't even want to share. But in the meantime, I had may as well describe what each link actually links to.
Jordan Eats Normally Now
Way early in the year (around February-ish, I'd say), I was asked by a fellow troper whether I could provide an eldritch abomination for a little project of his. He specifically asked for a "Water Elemental" for something he referred to as simply "A New Mythos." The mythos was to be a mythos of creepypasta and other assorted internet horror featuring an assortment of baddies, and my pal wanted a water-based one.
So I go to the New Mythos thread and throw out five brainstorms for "water elemental" abominations. One of them is a tentacled pondmonster, one is a Victorian-era lady of steam, one is a strange mist in the middle of the desert, one is something that possesses grandfathers, and one is a ten-staged "blog comment virus." I decide to blend two together-- the first and the last.
I have now created an eldritch abomination. But what to call it? For now, it's just called "the Water Elemental." I think for a while, and I discover an oddity in horror: a lot of horror is inspired by heavy metal or folk or just plain rock lyrics, with a lot of the eldritch inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. I set my heart out on being different. I set my heart out on being inspired by progressive rock, and the works of Stephen King and Troy Wagner.
I begin to come up with the inner workings of my beast, crafting the details of the "ten-stage blog virus," merging it with the tentacled pond-monster. I look into what could possibly be more original than tentacles in a pond, and I find out through a fellow troper that many fungi have "string"-like extensions that are similar in appearance to tentacles. I decide to make my Water Elemental a sort of eldritch fungus. ..that expels ink.
You see, the Water Elemental works by "eating" the water in a body of liquid and replacing it all with its "ink." Its ink looks exactly like water and tastes exactly like it, but if it happens to "eat" all the water in your body (70% water!)? Welcome to the hive mind, bitch. Welcome to her hive mind.
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.
I still need a name, though. So I open up my music library and take a look at some of the most progressive stuff I have. I spot two names: Genesis' "The Battle of Epping Forest" and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Tarkus." I start throwing brainstorms out there. "The Pond Epper?" Not quite. "The Epping Tarkus?" Close, but something's missing. ...then I remember the seventh movement of "Tarkus:" Aquatarkus.
"The Epping AquaTarkus." Say hello to EAT.
My colleagues love it. "EAT." It sounds so evil.
But it's not evil. It's patient, it's growing, and it's not of this world, but it's not evil.
It's perfect. But also learning. Learning about us.
Now I just need a story.
What's wrong with most blog horror stories? They're obviously fake; the protagonist has a couple of normal entries before "OMG SLENDER MAN." The prose is too.. formal; if a character meets and has a lengthy discussion with someone or something, when they get home that night, they will recount every single detail of the conversation word-for-word. They're hard to follow if using multiple media; EverymanHYBRID is the perfect offender of this, with several blogs and YouTube channels and Twitters that require multiple timelines just to follow accurately.
To remedy the first problem, I decide to use a blog I'd been keeping since age twelve. Originally titled DJay32's Paper Dimension, renamed Jordan, Large But Not in Charge, and then finally (coincidentally) renamed Jordan Eats Normally Now, this blog has as realistic of a backlog as it gets; it really is real.
To remedy the second problem, I make sure my protagonist omits a lot of information and is as unreliable and untalkative about his life as it gets. If he has a discussion with someone in the day, he'll go home to blog and either give a rough recollection of events or not mention it at all.
To remedy the third problem, I make sure all external media is captured in screenshot/link and posted on the main blog. If a new reader were to read only the blog, they would therefore get the whole story, despite many videos being uploaded to YouTube and other blogs being involved.
Now, what about the story?
I decide to take my "blog virus" concept and have that be the catalyst. The rest will be synopsed right now.
Overture:
Jordan Dooling used to frequent a blog titled Progression Enhanced that analyzed and broke down prog albums. Then he stopped, only to come back several months later to find the blog removed. Through a fellow frequenter, he's provided with saved screenshots of every entry, revealing the first pieces to a puzzle Jordan begins to wish he'd never attempted solving.
Movement I- Investigative Implications:
Jordan receives an anonymous email citing a nearby address. This is an abandoned house-- abandoned, that is, other than the blogger behind Progression Enhanced. As he investigates, he discovers a series of experimental videos, and a second blog that seems to have suffered the same fate as Progression, the biggest link being the final comment by "The Camper."
Movement II- The Camper House:
Jordan discovers a third blog that has fallen victim to "The Camper:" The Topography of Thought. This one only raises more questions. Continuing his investigation of the mysterious house, Jordan tries bringing his brother along, only for things to get quite a bit more serious than either could have predicted.
Movement III- Topographic Silence:
After the surprising new events, Jordan is left alone in stunned confusion. Old blogs are reawakened, developments increase exponentially in terms of crypticness, and Jordan begins the slow descent into losing his sanity-- as well as his blog!
Movement IV- Doors Open Wide:
Jordan's sanity is hanging by threads at this point, and yet unfortunately, it's got a lot further to go. The only things certain in this movement are that insanity is painful, and the unknown doesn't care about your past.
Movement V- Regressional Performance:
Jordan's on the run from The Camper, and he thinks he can still save his sanity while he's at it. But the better question is, can he save his brother? Can he save himself?
(Epilogue)
That's the whole story, right there. I worked hard on it for a good eleven months, and with the end of it came the end of an era.
Jordan Eats Normally Now
Way early in the year (around February-ish, I'd say), I was asked by a fellow troper whether I could provide an eldritch abomination for a little project of his. He specifically asked for a "Water Elemental" for something he referred to as simply "A New Mythos." The mythos was to be a mythos of creepypasta and other assorted internet horror featuring an assortment of baddies, and my pal wanted a water-based one.
So I go to the New Mythos thread and throw out five brainstorms for "water elemental" abominations. One of them is a tentacled pondmonster, one is a Victorian-era lady of steam, one is a strange mist in the middle of the desert, one is something that possesses grandfathers, and one is a ten-staged "blog comment virus." I decide to blend two together-- the first and the last.
I have now created an eldritch abomination. But what to call it? For now, it's just called "the Water Elemental." I think for a while, and I discover an oddity in horror: a lot of horror is inspired by heavy metal or folk or just plain rock lyrics, with a lot of the eldritch inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. I set my heart out on being different. I set my heart out on being inspired by progressive rock, and the works of Stephen King and Troy Wagner.
I begin to come up with the inner workings of my beast, crafting the details of the "ten-stage blog virus," merging it with the tentacled pond-monster. I look into what could possibly be more original than tentacles in a pond, and I find out through a fellow troper that many fungi have "string"-like extensions that are similar in appearance to tentacles. I decide to make my Water Elemental a sort of eldritch fungus. ..that expels ink.
You see, the Water Elemental works by "eating" the water in a body of liquid and replacing it all with its "ink." Its ink looks exactly like water and tastes exactly like it, but if it happens to "eat" all the water in your body (70% water!)? Welcome to the hive mind, bitch. Welcome to her hive mind.
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.
I still need a name, though. So I open up my music library and take a look at some of the most progressive stuff I have. I spot two names: Genesis' "The Battle of Epping Forest" and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Tarkus." I start throwing brainstorms out there. "The Pond Epper?" Not quite. "The Epping Tarkus?" Close, but something's missing. ...then I remember the seventh movement of "Tarkus:" Aquatarkus.
"The Epping AquaTarkus." Say hello to EAT.
My colleagues love it. "EAT." It sounds so evil.
But it's not evil. It's patient, it's growing, and it's not of this world, but it's not evil.
It's perfect. But also learning. Learning about us.
Now I just need a story.
What's wrong with most blog horror stories? They're obviously fake; the protagonist has a couple of normal entries before "OMG SLENDER MAN." The prose is too.. formal; if a character meets and has a lengthy discussion with someone or something, when they get home that night, they will recount every single detail of the conversation word-for-word. They're hard to follow if using multiple media; EverymanHYBRID is the perfect offender of this, with several blogs and YouTube channels and Twitters that require multiple timelines just to follow accurately.
To remedy the first problem, I decide to use a blog I'd been keeping since age twelve. Originally titled DJay32's Paper Dimension, renamed Jordan, Large But Not in Charge, and then finally (coincidentally) renamed Jordan Eats Normally Now, this blog has as realistic of a backlog as it gets; it really is real.
To remedy the second problem, I make sure my protagonist omits a lot of information and is as unreliable and untalkative about his life as it gets. If he has a discussion with someone in the day, he'll go home to blog and either give a rough recollection of events or not mention it at all.
To remedy the third problem, I make sure all external media is captured in screenshot/link and posted on the main blog. If a new reader were to read only the blog, they would therefore get the whole story, despite many videos being uploaded to YouTube and other blogs being involved.
Now, what about the story?
I decide to take my "blog virus" concept and have that be the catalyst. The rest will be synopsed right now.
Overture:
Jordan Dooling used to frequent a blog titled Progression Enhanced that analyzed and broke down prog albums. Then he stopped, only to come back several months later to find the blog removed. Through a fellow frequenter, he's provided with saved screenshots of every entry, revealing the first pieces to a puzzle Jordan begins to wish he'd never attempted solving.
Movement I- Investigative Implications:
Jordan receives an anonymous email citing a nearby address. This is an abandoned house-- abandoned, that is, other than the blogger behind Progression Enhanced. As he investigates, he discovers a series of experimental videos, and a second blog that seems to have suffered the same fate as Progression, the biggest link being the final comment by "The Camper."
Movement II- The Camper House:
Jordan discovers a third blog that has fallen victim to "The Camper:" The Topography of Thought. This one only raises more questions. Continuing his investigation of the mysterious house, Jordan tries bringing his brother along, only for things to get quite a bit more serious than either could have predicted.
Movement III- Topographic Silence:
After the surprising new events, Jordan is left alone in stunned confusion. Old blogs are reawakened, developments increase exponentially in terms of crypticness, and Jordan begins the slow descent into losing his sanity-- as well as his blog!
Movement IV- Doors Open Wide:
Jordan's sanity is hanging by threads at this point, and yet unfortunately, it's got a lot further to go. The only things certain in this movement are that insanity is painful, and the unknown doesn't care about your past.
Movement V- Regressional Performance:
Jordan's on the run from The Camper, and he thinks he can still save his sanity while he's at it. But the better question is, can he save his brother? Can he save himself?
(Epilogue)
That's the whole story, right there. I worked hard on it for a good eleven months, and with the end of it came the end of an era.
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