Hey guys, for today I’m posting what I wrote for NaNoWriMo, which is funny because it’s basically what I used to write hear, except longer. Hope someone likes it or whatever. Yeah, kinda a lazy day for me, just copy and pasting my old book. Laters.
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Entry #1, 11/2/11, 10:08am-This is weird. I guess the idea is that because I don’t know what to write for NaNoWriMo, I’ll write a journal about my life instead. I guess that works. Anyone who knows me knows this wasn’t my first idea for NaNoWriMo. My first idea was called, “The Journeys of the Blue Mage, Volume 1”. The novel synopsis and stuff was for that at first on this site, and I wrote over 500 words about it before I looked back and had a startling realization. You see, the idea for this Blue Mage and his adventures came about in High School, around Sophomore year.
The idea was he was a planeswalker (a superpowerful magic-user from Magic: The Gathering that could move between the different planes of the Multiverse), who used blue and white magic. He would scour the Multiverse (every different plane and universe, literally infinite), looking for allies in the war he was fighting. He would show up in the worlds on my favorite shows/books/movies/etc. and meet and get to know the characters there. As I was writing it for NaNoWriMo, I had a sad realization. It was shit. Not what I was writing, but the concept as a whole. It had two major problems as a concept:
1) It was a total self-insert fan-fiction. The Blue Mage wasn’t really a character, he was me. The whole idea was me getting to talk to my favorite characters and befriend them. It wasn’t about a good story and interesting dialogue, it was about fluffing my own ego. 2) No one would want to read it but me. The worlds were those of things I love, and because of that for anyone to enjoy the story they would have to have seen the show in question, or else nothing happening would matter to you. It would start with Avatar: The Last Airbender. Fair, a lot of people have seen that. After that would be Teen Titans. Again, a somewhat popular cartoon. The problem is that those who are fans of Avatar but not Teen Titans would leave almost immediately. And when the next setting started, those who haven’t seen THAT would leave as well. As it went on, the fanbase would diminish further and further, until only I was reading it. Not a great idea. I will, however, in honor of the death of my long thought-of story, I will splatter the screen with the ideas I had.
So the basic idea was that Blue Mage would tell everyone that he was the last surviving member of his home plane of existence. After a while he would reveal he was lying, and give the full story. His home plane was invaded by the Phyrexians, the main enemies of several eras of Magic: the Gathering. The way a planeswalker is created is that thoughout the Multiverse, only one rule holds true: out of every one million sapient beings, one is born with a planeswalker spark. The spark is ignited, turning the being into a planeswalker, in a moment of pure undiluted sadness and sorrow. Blue Mage’s family was killed in front of him, igniting his spark and sending him to another plane. There he was picked up by a sort-of school/coalition of planeswalkers, and taught the ins-and-outs of the Multiverse with the other four kids to have survived. Throughout the series, as in Magic itself, five would be an important number. Five survivors of his home dimension.
At first, Blue Mage was depressed and vengeful over the death of his whole world (who wouldn’t be), and hung out with the girl who was mostly Black magic and a guy who was Red magic . Blue Mage and Black Mage were going out for a while, and while each comforted the other, they also made each other more angry and revenge-driven over the invasion. The other two survivor’s were a guy who used Green magic, and a girl who used White magic. After being told he was learning too much Black magic and not enough White for a proper Blue Mage, he was forced into some study journeys with the two. There White Mage told him he was too sad and angry, and needed to be more positive. He was angry at her for suggesting it at first, but as he spent time with both White Mage and Black Mage, he noticed that the former made him feel more happy and less stressed out, while the latter just amplified his dark emotions. Realizing this, he broke up with Black Mage and started dating White Mage.
They got along great, and she made him a better person. In the months afterward, Black Mage tried dating Red Mage, but it didn’t work. Fueled by jealousy, she met with White Mage, trying to win Blue Mage back. The argument got violent, and Black Mage killed White Mage. In fear of the academy expelling/killing her, she got in contact with the Phyrexians, who offered her a position with them, considering her great power. She tried talking Blue Mage into going with her, but when he of course despised the idea of trying to join the things that killed his family. She knocked him out and ran.
Afterward, he began trying to formulate plans to stop the Phyrexians from taking another plane. Normally the academy’s response to the invasions was to monitor the planes around the invaded plane, and grab up any young planeswalkers the event created. Kind of screwed up, no? His idea was to go from plane to plane, accruing a group of summons/allies who could be called upon as an army to defeat the invading Phyrexians. The council ruling the academy heard the idea and laughed, saying if he thought the defeating their enemies with “The Power of Friendship” would work, then he should prove it. They sent him on a mission, to put his plan into action and gather a large group for summons to defeat the invaders the next time they tried to take over a plane.
After a while of watching him go from plane to plane, meeting characters and getting them as summons, they would discover the next plane to be invaded and when it would happen. It would be the world of DC Comics, and happen in one year. He would spend that year getting summons in the DC universe, and at the end he would try to stop the invasion. The way the Phyrexians invade is by forming a kind of sub-plane between the target plane and one they’ve already taken over.
He would jump into it just as it was created, then summon everyone he’d met to fight. It would be revealed that Black Mage is the general of the opposing army. The battle goes well, while Blue Mage solely fights his ex-lover. Throughout the story before this, Blue Mage only wears white and blue clothing, and carries a blue mana artifact and a white mana artifact (The color’s two mox’s). After his betrayal from Black Mage, he completely denies his own black magic, and anything that has to do with it. After having a rough battle with Black Mage, he realizes that the reason he’s losing is his denial of the black magic. He learns that black magic is not fundamentally evil, despite its bad reputation and his connection between it and Black Mage. He does this cool thing, where he says, “This is me giving you the fruits you’ve sown,” as he uses his left hand to drain the life out of her, “and this is the woman you killed, giving it back.” as he uses his right to heal her with white magic (THAT IS NOT A MONK EPISODE BEING RIPPED OFF...OKAY IT IS, SO SUE ME). Once she’s unconscious, he takes her black mana artifact (Mox Jet), and adds it to his costume. From then on, his costume is more dark, and he fully embraces both the dark and light of his magic. And that is the idea of the story, in a nutshell.
Weird first entry for a diary, I must say. I haven’t talked about myself at all. For those who can’t read the name on the damn web-page, I’m Roy Hankins. I’m 18 years old and currently enrolled at Butte College, with the goal to transfer to Chico State. I live in Chico currently, sharing a 2 bedroom apartment with my three best friends to save money. I grew up in a tiny northern California county called Lake County. It was a boring little place filled with old people and pot heads. I’m a total geek, nerd, and dork. For those who don’t know, to me and many others the difference is as follows: a nerd is someone who is deeply intuitive or has a great love of an academic science, like astronomy, English, or math; a geek is someone who has a deep love/obsession over a work of fiction; and a dork is someone with inadequate social skills. I am all three of these things, and so are many of my friends.
I’m really excited, because I’ve heard of this great book called, “House of Leaves”. It technically arrived today, but the plaza’s office has it, and I can’t actually get it until tomorrow. I’m also reading “The Dance of Dragons”, the fifth and newest in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series on my Kindle (KINDLE FOR THE WIN). ...Damn I need like 400 words before I can call it done for today. I need to do 2000 words a day to make up for the fact I didn’t write at all yesterday. What to talk about?
Today I woke up at 10am, ate a bowl of cereal, worried about what to write for this, watched a couple episodes of Fate: stay night (Great anime), played some Minecraft (I’m currently recreating the Johto region from Pokemon gold in-game), and am currently laying on the couch in our living room, watching Soul Eater (Also good) out of the corner of my eye while my friends play League of Legends (Not a big fan, don’t like the fact that my character’s level and items reset every game. What’s the point of putting the effort into the game if the effort is gone at the end of the match!?). Maybe I should talk more about me?
My father is James (He prefers Jim) Hankins, and he turned 62 last month. My mother is Kathy Hankins, and I won’t divulge her age for fear of death by her hands (A joke). My little sister is Heather Hankins, she’s 14, and a freshman in High School. GOD I NEED MORE WORDS! I can try describing my roommates. There’s Devin, a great artist who’s a year older than me, and working at the CCC so he can afford our rent. There’s Burns, a cool gamer, again a year older than me, who is trying to join the CCC so he can help pay for our rent. And there’s William, a fellow Butte College student (again a year above me) who is paying for Aaron at the moment. He’s also never here, instead staying at his friend Tony’s house. It’s like he’s paying not to live here...it’s weird. There’s also Dukes, who’s actually the same age as me. We’ve been friends since 5th grade, and he’s a pretty cool guy (he’s also dating my cousin). Despite the fact he’s living with his rich brother, he spends most of his time here with us.
The classes I’m currently taking at Butte are Introduction to Film (Pretty hard) and Introduction to Logic (Easy and interesting). Let me see...65 words to go!? Damn. I guess I can end this entry by saying that I hope I can finish NaNoWriMo in time, and that I hope you can find some enjoyment in the mad ramblings I call a diary. So, everyone: Winter is Coming, Live Long and Prosper, Let the Force Be With You, and have a good day.
Entry #2, 11/8/11, 10:46pm-Yeah, okay I know. It’s been over six days since I last wrote. I’m behind, so sue me! But I do have excuses! Oh, so many excuses. I’ve been reading House of Leaves (discuss it later), going to school, and being sick. Yay sickness! I’ve also been playing Magic, and a cool Ace Attorney fangame.
I am loving the House of Leaves. The book gives me this dread, ominous and dark, and I love stuff that gets me like that. So far though, I have two problems: 1) I am a much more interested in the Zampano chapters than the Johnny Truant ones. Occasionally I’m briefly awed by his moments of sheer terror (which are beautifully written), but for the most part it’s his day-to-day life, and I find that quite boring. (Hypocritical, I know.) 2) There is a chapter in Zampano’s story about echoes...at it’s dull. I could not read past the second page. So I skipped it. What? There isn’t any book police stopping me from reading it however I wrote.
But what I do like? Alright, let me try to hook those who don’t know about it. It’s about this guy, Will Navidson. He’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, whose wife, after years of Will neglecting her and his kids for his job, gives him a choice: quit the job or us. So he takes them out and buys a nice house in the middle of Nowhere, Virginia (of no relation to Nowhere, Kansas), on a street called Ash Tree Lane. However, a couple months after moving in, they go on vacation. When they come back, they find a new addition to the house, a hallway going from their room to their kid’s room. When he tries to check the blueprints, and see if there is any clue to where it comes from, he finds the house is 1/4in bigger on the inside than on the outside. As he, his brother, and a college engineering professor try to figure this out, the house gets weirder.
But it’s not really about that family. You see, all of this and more was the plot to a cult-classic indie movie/maybe documentary called “The Navidson Record”. This Portugease guy, Zampano, decides to compile and sift through the various reviews and essays on the film and discover what it truly means. The farther he gets in the book, the more insane both he and his writing becomes.
But it’s not really about that guy. It’s about Johnny Truant, a young tattoo artist, who one night helps his friend clear out the house of his neighbor, who just deceased. There he finds the old man, Zampano, had wrote a manuscript, which he then tries to both read and put together into a coherent book. But as he soon finds out, there is no movie called “The Navidson Record”. And no one who is quoted in the book ever said those things. As he tries to figure this out, Johnny descends into the same madness that consumed Zampano.
Basically, House of Leaves is a book about a book about a film about a house that turns out to be a labyrinth. Which makes the book a labyrinth. This book rocks my socks. It is pure, undiluted paranoia, fear, and madness. The writer, Mark Z. Danielewski, is brilliant, and this book serves as proof positive.
Hmmm...what else to talk about? Well, I guess I can talk about the game I’ve been playing. If you’ve played Ace Attorney games before, skip this paragraph, and continue to the cool stuff. Basically, you play as an defense attorney, Phoenix Wright, and play through what is basically a detective story, except instead of the detective being cool and smart, he’s a bumbling idiot who arrested the wrong guy. It’s up to Phoenix to prove his client’s innocence and show who the real killer is and how he/she did it. They’re intelligent, hilarious games and deserve more love.
So, basically, it goes like this. Chronologically, the newest game is Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, which takes place 10 years after the first game, and seven years after Phoenix Wright has been disbarred. The protagonist is Apollo Justice (duh), a greenhorn attorney who ends up working for Wright, and taking over as a champion of justice (Not really, just playing around). The problem is that this game came out over 5 years ago, and while a direct sequel has been announced, no word has come out about it in years. In the absence of official awesomeness, the fans took up the torch. Of the many fan-games made of the series (And trust me, there are MANY.), the best (besides Turnabout Substitution, the current raining champ) try at a sequel to Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney: Justice’s Memoirs. The first case of the game is already complete, and I’ve just finished playing through it. I won’t explain the plot, because it would take far too much time. The case is incredibly well made, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants more OBJECTION action. They’ve added a couple of great new features, and the new characters rock hard.
HURP DURP WHAT DO I WRITE? Sorry for a short entry, but I don’t know what to write right now. I need my sleep. LATERS READER.
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