What would you think of this kind of story?
Welp, I'm officially dunking on Wildcaster: Season of Darkness. I tried rewinding one last time on that mess and still didn't like where it was going (and it kept bending toward the same predictable direction). Consider the plug officially pulled.
I've decided to write something new. I have "Skyfate: The Trial of Kyan" as a tentative title for this, but I'm open to other suggestions. Surprisingly, after trying many other titles, "Skyfate" has yet to be claimed by any other kind of game, book, company, or anything like that.
It's not going to be a Pokémon fan fiction though, but it will be loosely based on Trial of Juno and have very similar themes and settings. I never really liked the way Trial of Juno starts with the whole bully thing, but here, the main character, Kyan, has a completely different background. One that's not going to make the reader audience give up and feel like shutting the book on it too early on in the story (which was always a big problem I had trying to get people to read Trial of Juno).
As the storyline goes, in this darker, grittier Borderlands-meets-Redwall universe where there are no humans involved, there are many animal hybrids, similar to what Avatar the Last Airbender has for animals, only there are some civilized ones and some monster/feral ones (very similar to a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon setting). As with Trial of Juno, this universe has its own rendition of Heaven and Hell (not calling them Utopia and Abyss, they're called Sora (sky) and Shita (under) respectively).
Kyan, the main protagonist character, is very similar to a wolpertinger (looks very similar to this, but he also has hands in addition to wings). Basically, a bunny rabbit with wings. Not sure about the antlers, but I'm thinking him having a mane might be a nice touch instead (or in addition). His body colors will be mostly white and black with several bands and zig-zag patterns. He also has a kind of faint glow due to his role as a kind of defender angel.
Upon the relatively placid world of Goruden, Kyan lived out a peaceful but simple life as a healer/medic despite having dreams of being a soldier and protector. He died early from a building fire (which results in him having a kind of pyrophobia), but as soon as he got to Sora, he immediately enlisted to become a kind of defender angel, which isn't a role a whole lot of Sora denizens elect to become especially after realizing they're in paradise and are encouraged not to stress about the life they left behind. Essentially, the story really begins after Kyan graduates from the Sora defender angel academy and is a relatively new, rookie responder. While he has been on a few surveillance assignments before that were relatively peaceful, this story begins with his most roughest assignment by far. And it's one that he completely elects to undergo despite everyone discouraging it.
The actual beginning of the story starts when Burakku, in a similar fashion to Egatept from Trial of Juno III, is a world deemed far too enraptured in corruption and malice to continue existing. Day by day, violence, suffering, malicious entertainment, and death are the reason for many denizens of Burakku to be thrown into Shita, laughing maniacally and carelessly. The High Council of Sora meets to decide the fate of Burakku, and the voting decision to eradicate Burakku by a supernova is decided upon by one, single vote. By accident, Kyan stumbles into the meeting and overhears the decision. Naturally, as a medic from a past life who has revived the critically injured from the brink of death, he believes there is still hope for the world and he humbly speaks to the council, feeling something could be done. Some of the members of the council are outright appalled at Kyan's behavior to speak to the council like this being of rookie rank and not having clearance, but the members that voted to spare Burakku and seek alternative means to rectify the state of the world absolutely love the "little intruder's disruption" and totally vouch for it.
Not wanting to risk an ugly schism between the council, they decide to send Kyan into Burakku seeing Sora needs to keep things discreet and not look like the heavenly powers are obviously involved. Despite his very humble nature, Kyan trains with an incredible passion to be the best prepared to undertake this mission, even though the entire assembly of Sora Defender Angels know it's way, way out of his league. This story is all about his mission to prove them, every evil thing upon Burakku, his skeptical allies, and even the darkest forces of Shita completely dead wrong about that. But he will go through and fight against absolute hell in the process.
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That's basically the beginning exposition. A lot of the events in this story will be very similar to what happens in Trial of Juno III: Cry of Egatept, only with a lot more tweaking. Kyan gets treated like a scrub a lot while on Burakku. As a mockery of his brazen but selfless nature, he even gets thrown into a "Juggernaut" role and is forced to carry an oversized machine gun, but after many struggles, he learns to adapt to it and make it work. Despite many other hardships from the ones he's trying to help, he insists on putting up with it and never, ever takes credit for any successes. To him, success is a responsibility, not an achievement.
Upon Burakku, his "allies" and "friends" are a disorganized, ragtag rebellion group called Trident, resembled with a symbol of a three fireballs in a circle. Almost all of the soldiers and civilians in this faction are "pure," whereas their prime enemy, MEC (Master Entity Coalition), often has soldiers that have been turned into cyborgs with implants, have been subjected to dark and unethical science to accelerate muscle and size growth, and are very often incapable of mercy or honor. Most of the creatures in this enemy faction are reptilian in nature, often noted for being "cold-blooded for a reason." Problem is, their technology and weaponry is superior to that of Trident and they use massive, hulking, battle machines, robots, and freakish cybernetics to drive their dark campaign. It forces Trident to have to improvise with strategy and tactics rather than raw, brute force power. And it hasn't been working quite well for the most part. While Trident has their own weapons and machines, they're often junkyard hulks and things very similar to the kinds of vehicles and weapons in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Other small, rebellion factions exist outside of Trident, but they don't cooperate very well. They don't ally or agree on strategies either and MEC continues to be a serious, global threat with Kyan caught in the middle of it all. He realizes if there's to be any hope, they need to make an alliance or they're all doomed. At when it seems like hope is lost, somehow, to Trident and the other factions, "what the scrub says begins to make sense." But it's a very long and shaky road before that even happens.
During the story, Kyan befriends a hybrid draconic bird mount (called a Buradra) named Vari, very similar to Blazewing the Latias in Trial of Juno, only Vari is a bit larger and is predominantly black and white in coloring with crimson irises and a few crimson bands on her wings. Her comical natures helps an ordinarily serious and humble Kyan open up more to step up and face his fears with light-heartedness that also helps as comic relief with the story. With her by his side, she helps him regain confidence when things seem incredibly dark and overwhelming. And she assures Kyan that not everyone in Burakku is dark, wicked, and deserves to be slammed with a supernova. That fact keeps his faith alive that there is still good to Burakku and it has to be saved regardless of the cost.
And yes, the big thing that Kyan discovers is Shita is connected to MEC. And there's an even BIGGER plot twist than that, but... no more spoilers. You've seen enough! I don't want to give away the whole story!
So a lot of these names and things are simply placeholders for now and are subject to change, but basically this is the premise of the story I want to write. Only thing is I'm having a VERY HARD TIME deciding on one major thing that blocks me from even just getting started.
Should I write it in first person from Kyan's perspective the same way Trial of Juno was written from Juno's perspective, or should I go third person on this one?
That's where I'm getting stuck and I kind of wonder what people think might be the best approach with this kind of story. I'm leaning a bit more toward third person simply because describing things would be tons easier whereas it would be kind of out of place for Kyan to suddenly stop thinking about fighting for a moment just to think about what a particular thing looks like.
I honestly think this writing project would be a LOT more fun than the hellish struggle I've had with Wildcaster's sequel. This, I know for a fact, will be very action-packed, full of neat fantasy and science fiction elements, and would be a good homage to Trial of Juno without injecting Pokémon into it.
So please let me know what you think. I definitely plan on writing it anyway, but pointers, feedback, and ideas are always helpful and appreciated before I get started. :3
