Young Writers Society

Only twelve votes have been submitted so far, so I beseech you (that is an actual word, I promise XD), vote for your favourite genres and let your opinions be known!

~ Most Popular Storybook Genres

PS: I hope to submit my CP tomorrow.

I was thinking it would make sense for their introductory posts to be of them on the streets, what life was like for them before they're taken, similar to the intro posts we did in 1.0., just to get a feel for everything.

I already mentioned this to @Europa, but I was planning to talk about it here anyway. I'm trying to figure out how everything should line up so that it connects with 1.0..

The thing I'm trying to figure out is The Protectorate. The Animorphers didn't know about them at all until a guy from there talked to Dan on the bus. But they have no reason to trust them yet. I originally had thought that the rebels would reveal themselves after Riley was taken and that Darrin would be the one to reveal them, and that they wouldn't have much of a choice but to trust them given the circumstances. But Riley isn't going to be taken for a while yet.

But I had an idea...

Scenario:

Some of the Animorphers are with F.U.S.E. until they stumble across the information of the new lab. They panic and leave, knowing that F.U.S.E. can't be trusted. F.U.S.E. figures out that the Animorphers know about the new lab and that they have lost their trust. F.U.S.E. realize that there's no way they're going to be able to earn back their trust. So, the Animorphers in their eyes have essentially gone rogue...

So, in their eyes, it's too dangerous to have the Animorphers running around and not on their side, so they send out alerts to the state police that they are all dangerous fugitives. The police catch them and bring them in to F.U.S.E. lock down. Then, The Protectorate swoops in and rescues them, bringing them back to their base to protect them. Then they would have a reason to trust them.

With The Protectorate's help, they come up with a plan to destroy the lab, which is when they find the Animorphers 2.0..

But the downside to that is, as soon as they become "fugitives" they won't really be able to go home, and any plans we had having to do with school would probably have to change. :/

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Sounds good, @AstralHunter. And I voted. Just FYI.

Thanks, @LeftyWriter! I'm shamelessly using your DT to advertise because there's a lot of traffic through here.

Regarding the scenario, I can't provide fully relevant feedback, since I don't even know what F.U.S.E is, but it'd be difficult for an organisation to convince the police and/or the public that children are dangerous fugitives. If they had people watching the animorphers, those agents could then have captured the characters instead, so then the Protectorate can still rescue them.

If keeping the characters in school is important, I may have an idea. F.U.S.E. obviously won't let the animorphers escape that easily, so the Protectorate could send agents around the same ages as the animorphers to their school as protection. (They could be foreign exchange students, students newly graduated from the middle school [assuming this is high school] etc.) This could introduce many new NPCs, but if that's a problem, only a few of the Protectorate's agents, likely the most important ones, would maintain constant contact. This idea could also lead to more suspense, since the animorphers don't know who is an agent and who isn't. For all they know, F.U.S.E could be playing the same game...

@AstralHunter F.U.S.E. stands for Federal Unit of Scientific Experimentation. They are the government agency behind the original Animorphers experiment. They could send out red alert, high priority notice to the state police with info of escaped fugitives "that are on the loose and highly dangerous". It would sort of be like the FBI sending out an alert given they're a unit of the government, so the police probably wouldn't question it.

Even if they had rebel agents with them for protection, I'm not sure it would work for them to go back to school. Them being arrested (assuming it was the police that got them) would probably stir up the community. If they're labeled as wanted criminals, everyone in their community would probably recognize them instantly, including teachers, school security guards, etc... So until their names were cleared, they might not be able to show their faces at school. Also, it probably wouldn't take long for F.U.S.E. to figure out they were back at school and would constantly be out for them. They're pretty good at taking care of themselves, but even if they had guards with them on top of that, the second F.U.S.E. finds out where they are, they'd have the school locked down in minutes.

The only thing I could think is if a couple of them managed to sneak home and try to explain to their family what happened, because their families wouldn't turn them in. But it wouldn't be safe to stay long, for themselves or for their family.

I'm all for the idea, but what about characters who decide not to join up with F.U.S.E?

Just out of curiousity, why is the originals going back to school something you guys want to do. I just want to get your motivation with out reading back through the original DT

@Europa - I was thinking maybe 2-3 of them would go with the government and would start visiting F.U.S.E. just to see what they're all about. Learn more about the experiment, a medical check-up from doctors who understand, see if they can trust them to protect them. While the others would probably be skeptical and be like "You're visiting them again? Something still doesn't feel right about this but okay..." Then when the 2-3 that have been visiting F.U.S.E. stumble onto the info of the other lab, they leave, and they would all get wrapped up in being arrested.

I could see some "I told you so's" being tossed around.

@Veni, mostly that they're trying to hold on to their old normal lives for as long as they can, and as soon as they can't go back to school/home etc, they basically have to go on the run/into hiding.

I think for Riley at least she'd do it if she thought it meant her family would be protected as well. Otherwise, she wouldn't go anywhere near them

What are we going to do about school though?

It seems like the younger animorphers especially are either behind in school or about to be. I know they can't go back to school especially if they are wanted by police but I know Finn is not going to give up on his chance at an education. Most of his knowledge comes from random people on the street that have taught him things. Although not academic these skills served him well living in his own. Finn will ask anyone he sees with a skill or knowledge in any subject to teach him. He has a number of surprising talents and will be looking for more in the future.

He needs school or someone to teach him and the others need that as well. I can see that would not be easy to incorporate but maybe the older animorphers could teach the younger ones a few things.

-Ossie

Oh woah the new banners look totally awesome! You've done it again Lefty

I really love the banners @LeftyWriter!

But (and it's only a small but) would it be possible to use an Okapi with a little more white on the face so it's easier to see what it is? Like this little fellow? Or the super cute baby one?

Okay, but out of curiosity, what would they be fugitives for? (Ugh, the dangling preposition kills me.) I mean sure, people will beleive they're wanted, but it has to be for a realistic crime. And @Oswin1800 has a point. I'm happy to write about anything, but I'm interested in what the animorphers will have to do in the immediate future. Figuring that out would be a good idea before we start.

I was thinking that maybe the new animorphers could just live at the rebel base. This way they're not out in the open so the older guys don't have to worry so much about them getting killed, and they could get the training/education they need from the people at the base.

@Oswin1800 - Some of the new animorphers are probably in orphanages/foster homes while some of them are probably on the streets, so those who are on the streets probably already don't go to school. Learning is important and the original Animorphers could probably teach them a lot, about being an animorpher, about life, specific skills, and could possibly tutor them if a new animorpher requested it. But their main focus would probably be on staying alive and their education would be one of the last things on their priority list. It might be hard for some of them to take (the idea of dropping out of high school, not going to college, etc... this could even stem into some of them feeling like they have to give up on their dreams or the future they always imagined, which is a hard pill to swallow) but for now, their lives have been flipped upside down and they're just trying to stay alive.

@Wolfical - Aww, thanks Wolfie! Glad you like them! <3

@Rydia - Glad you like them! I will definitely see what I can do about the Okapi picture and re-upload it once I have it fixed.

@AstralHunter - There's probably a lot that they could be charged with. Trespassing, assault, murder (Gwen). F.U.S.E. could even pin the bombing of the lab (or the fire, which is the official story that was broadcasted) on them which could add charges like terrorism, arson and murder (for all of them). F.U.S.E. could also be concerned that the Animorphers will go to the press and tell them everything they know, so they could be charged with stealing state secrets, etc...

I was thinking how the SB should start (and this can change, just where my thoughts were going) is that for the first couple posts: the original Animorphers will be sort of picking up where the first storybook left off, although we'll probably jump ahead a couple weeks. Gwen and a couple others will have been visiting F.U.S.E., Riley will still be healing in the hospital, etc...

Meanwhile, the first couple posts for the new Animorphers would be life in the orphanage/foster home/streets, then being picked up by F.U.S.E..

The original Animorphers find out about the new lab and leave F.U.S.E., who figures out that they know and send out alerts to the police to arrest them. They're captured by F.U.S.E., but shortly after are rescued by the rebel group The Protectorate and are brought to their base.

The new Animorphers go through their experiment.

The original Animorphers make a plan to destroy the new lab and, while carrying out their plan, they find the new Animorphers and rescue them, bringing them back to the rebel base.

Then the new Animorphers have to get settled in and deal with the symptoms of becoming an Animorpher while the original Animorphers have to figure out what to do with this group of kids their suddenly responsible for and what their next move should be now that they can't go home.

After that, I hadn't thought a whole lot further ahead, besides some plans that had been made back in 1.0. involving the original Animorphers that can fit in anywhere, but I figured we could kind of figure it out as we went along and throw ideas around for the new Animorphers.

Again, that scenario isn't set in stone, that's just kind of what I had thought of thus far, which is pretty in line with what @Europa said. But I'd love to hear your guys' ideas. And let me know if any of this was confusing, I typed it really quickly and am a bit short on time, so I'm hoping what I typed all made sense.

@LeftyWriter, I have postponed further progress on my character profile, because at this stage, she will be female. I'm happy with either gender, but if you make Neon's counterpart, then it would be better if I go with male to balance out the gender ratio. Again, I can easily change genders - the personality and appearance will remain mostly the same. So just let me know what you decide!