Wednesday 24 February 2010

Cloud 109 - Episode 19

All kinds of dark stuff is going down in the cybernetic Babylon otherwise known as Cloud 109.The Dungeon game that Cary persuaded them would provide 100 easy credits, courtesy of some cheats from his techy friend Matt has turned into a nightmare from which there is no escape, save logging off and logging on again and now they're back in the chat room but is it the chat room?

Are they who they think they are?

I must admit David and I are off in unknown territory here as we play around with the characters various incarnations. One of the primary drives with this narrative is to constantly question what is reality. If you think about it we now have a cybernetic world where you can go off and buy real estate, and beautiful and heroic avatars can conduct passionate cybernetic trysts unencumbered by the horrible truth that in fact their progenitors who are orchestrating these steamy romances are in reality a pair of fat and decrepit old men on either side of the globe.

Dark stuff indeed.

5 comments:

  1. Ah, so that's where that scene comes in! I love the transition from the adrenaline-fuelled but somehow innocent danger of the dungeon to the altogether darker emotional threat of the strangely altered chat room. It's like childhood fears giving way to the more complex angst of adolescence. Brilliant stuff, guys.

    And those spooky-goth avatars are great, in fact one of the many pleasures of Cloud 109 is seeing the different guises that our heroes pull on, voluntarily or not.

    I'm curious to what extent you have mapped out an end for the story and how much you're winging it? Not asking for spoilers here btw! In my own writing, I prefer to let characters and story come together organically, with a vague sense of the ultimate goal that I'll often change along the way. But others prefer to work to a tighter story outline. Just wondered.

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  2. Good question Dave, David has in fact entirely scripted the first book all 60 pages, so that's esy for me to map out visually where we need to be going.

    But the whole story is three books long - 180 pages in total (which I initially thought was epic until I discovered how vast Mirabilis is going to be).

    So there's a bit more scripting to be done but I think David has the ending worked out and when he told me what it was I was knocked out - so as far as I am concerned this story will be seen through to it's conclusion even if we do end up in the poor house.

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  3. This is looking totally fantastic, Peter.

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  4. Many thanks Garen, it's really great to hear from you and needless to say I can't wait for the second volume of The Rainbow Orchid - my favorite graphic novel from 2009.

    I can see in years to come someone doing a history of the evolution of this amazing story, with reproductions from the earlier (and now incredibly hard to come by) self published editions.

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  5. Lovely page Peter I like the change of pace and the use of colours to signify the Real? world, especially like the last panel. Hope to see more soon.

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