With not much else to post about, i thought... why not share what i go through when i am writing up a short story. You know, because i am such a "great" writer and all. (disclaimer - i am a High School dropout. I did not pass English past the first half of the 10th grade. I did pass the GED. It took me four, FOUR, tries to pass English 010. Yes, OH ONE OH, not 101. And, no, i have NOT completed ANY college degree. So, take all of this with a large grain of salt).
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I started off the next part of Aodhan's story with an outline from our Shadowrun gaming session. This part was actually the latter half of the 1st gaming session. The previous story was from the first half. I consider this story as the "bridge" from the "Intro" until they meet the rest of the Shadowrun 'Party".
I started with just a really rough outline:
* woman enters the house with an SMG leveled at Aodhan and Patch
* Patch and Aodhan are complacent
* She realizes we were helping her mother and drops the SMG
* the women searched and realize that the baby is now gone (Cody)
* incoming call (others from the group, calling to check on them)
* Role-playing: Patch and Aodhan begin to gather up their equipment to leave
* Leaf begins to play up that she is worried about the intruders coming back, and asks them to stay
* Aodhan will take up a position outside, hidden very near by. Patch will remain inside, controlling his drones, but feeding video and audio feeds to him.
(108 words)
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Then, i just 'free style' wrote up the first draft:
“Don’t you fraggers even think of breathing.”
Aodhan stopped where he was and slowly lifted his arms out to the side. Spreading his fingers wide to show that he was not holding anything. But he also looked at the video Patchcable’ s drone was still feeding into his AR goggles.
The voice had come from behind him. A woman’s voice. Terse, and direct, but Aodhan couldn’t detect an immediate threat. The light had to be playing tricks on the image. She looked like she was 200 cm tall, and looked to weighed in at least 135 kg, but she was no troll. Disheveled, and soaking wet from the storm outside, sure, but she was definitely an elven woman. And she held a lethal looking AK-97 that she was swiveling between Patch and Aodhan. The old woman that Patch was finishing taking care of finally spoke up.
“They took Cody”, she said weakly.
The elven woman dropped the assault rifle and sprinted past the Patch and his charge, practically barreling them both over as she turned down the hallway, disappearing into a room on their left.
A haunting scream came from the room. Patch and Aodhan’s eyes locked on each other and they immediately understood. Time to start gathering their things. Puyallup has a way of swallowing its denizens, and those who get involved in other people's business.
As she emerged from the room, a mixture of fear and rage screwed her face into something Aodhan couldn’t describe. But the woman’s stature was much diminished from when he saw her in the earlier video feed of his goggles. Just then the awkward silence was broken by chirps from her commlink.
“They took him Tach! Cody ‘s gone! No, i… there are two guys here now… no, they…. OK... right.”
Her hand dropped to her side in resignation. She seemed drained now.
Patch spoke up in his slight German accent, “so we are going to go now. Do you need us to call Knight Errant for you?”
“No. Please.” She was searching for the right words. “That was my boyfriend. He asked if you could stay until he gets here. To thank you.”
Patchcable able looked over at Aodhan who spoke up for both, “That’s not really necessary. We’ve had a long day and…”
“Look, he’s SINless. Knight Errant is just going to give us the runaround, and… we might need help getting my son back.”
Aodhan rubbed the back of his neck as he bowed his head. He wasn’t sure how Patch was going to respond that that, but the least they could do was to hang around until her boyfriend got home. Locked up the place. He looked over at Patch, who just nodded his head.
The unlikely pair, Patchcable, a German dwarf Doc / Rigger who liked to wear his Blaze Orange Jacket, and Aodhan, an Elf Intrusion Decker, out of Tor na nOg, who stuck to his dark blues, greys, and black. What good where they going to be in retrieving a kidnapped child?
They awkwardly got to work, helping put things back together around the house while they waited for the woman’s boyfriend to get home. Patch picked up a picture frame and brushed it off. With hushed voice and a frantic wave of his arm he called Aodhan over.
Through the broken glass Aodhan saw, a picturesque elf woman, holding a young boy on her hip. Standing next to her, an orc man. Wearing gang colors.
“Patch, what did you say those fellas were wearing? The ones we chased out of here?”, Aodhan asked.
“Black leather jackets, with a neon green capital “A” on the back. Why?”
“I think I have an idea why the kid might have been taken.”
(624 words)
There is still a long way to go until i consider this finished. But, in a way, this will document how it evolves as i go.
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