Merytaten and Hermes shot bows and arrows at colored stones along the ridge of the hill. Although Hermes was, by far, the better archer, Merytaten wanted to prove that she could be better. The stones had been here since the beginning of time. It was a short walk from the village, and only Merytaten and Hermes knew about it. Since they had discovered it, it had become their daily routine after their chores to try to see who could score the most points at their game.
Brainstorming:
[5:22 PM] not_a_seagull: http://topia.wikidot.com/team-bird-ending a start
[5:22 PM] Lt Flops: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[5:22 PM] Lt Flops: blessed
[5:22 PM] not_a_seagull: So here's my plan
[5:23 PM] not_a_seagull: In the first season, they destroyed Thoth by shooting a nuke at him
[5:23 PM] not_a_seagull: In this season, what if they blackmail Thoth?
[5:25 PM] Lt Flops: ooh okay. so like, what would the blackmail entail?
[5:25 PM] Lt Flops: unless that's up for discussion :eye:
[5:25 PM] not_a_seagull: What I've written here is: what if Thoth was originally a human?
[5:25 PM] Lt Flops: :OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
[5:25 PM] not_a_seagull: Merytaten and Ramses were childhood friends, but Ramses undergoes apotheosis and becomes Thoth
[5:26 PM] not_a_seagull: Then they somehow get Merytaten and Merytaten gets Thoth to lay off
[5:26 PM] Lt Flops: :oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
[5:26 PM] Lt Flops: sorry for spam
[5:26 PM] not_a_seagull: It's alright :slight_smile:
[5:26 PM] Lt Flops: what if his name is Hermes and not Ramses
[5:27 PM] not_a_seagull: Good pointer
[5:27 PM] not_a_seagull: Chang'd
[5:27 PM] Lt Flops: so he undergoes apotheosis. huh, ok, that sounds neat
[5:28 PM] Lt Flops: the "huh" is me saying "huh cool"
[5:30 PM] Lt Flops: ive been interested in this one concept recently. it's called transpolytheism, where a mortal can become a deity. i mean, that's basically what apotheosis is, but it's more specific
[5:30 PM] not_a_seagull: Ooo, tell more
[5:30 PM] Lt Flops: it's a belief in some eastern philosophies, like Jainism
[5:31 PM] Lt Flops: for instance, the Jains believe that all mortals can become deities, but that our link to (for lack of a better term) "knowledge" is clouded by karmic particles
[5:31 PM] not_a_seagull: I see
[5:32 PM] Lt Flops: and that, if we can purify ourselves of the karmic particles, we can unlock omniscience and become a deity in mortal flesh
[5:32 PM] Lt Flops: and then after you die, you become an eternal deific spirit
[5:32 PM] not_a_seagull: Mhmm
[5:32 PM] not_a_seagull: So what if Hermes dies and becomes one of those?
[5:33 PM] Lt Flops: that would be interesting
[5:33 PM] Lt Flops: would you rather Thoth have a "body" so-to-speak, or be essentially a pluripotent spirit that can embody different things?
[5:33 PM] Lt Flops: bc i know we played around very briefly with his "True Form"
[5:34 PM] not_a_seagull: I'd like to think that Thoth exists mostly as a spirit, and that's why the bomb affected him
[5:34 PM] Lt Flops: interesting. because it's essentially a thaumomissile packed with memes
[5:35 PM] not_a_seagull: Yeah
[5:35 PM] not_a_seagull: and what I'm thinking is that it will just feel like escalation if we make another bomb to kill Thoth
[5:35 PM] not_a_seagull: So what if they use Thoth's past against them?
[5:36 PM] Lt Flops: as in. he recalls his past and feels sorrow for it? or they use a key from his past to unmake him
[5:37 PM] not_a_seagull: It might be cliche, but what if Thoth feels guilt for Merytaten?
[5:37 PM] not_a_seagull: And once Merytaten forgives him he goes away?
[5:37 PM] Lt Flops: ooo oooo
[5:37 PM] Lt Flops: what if he persists because of that guilt
[5:38 PM] Lt Flops: like it anchors thoth to the overworld
[5:38 PM] not_a_seagull: That’s what I was thinking
[5:38 PM] Lt Flops: yea i like that
[5:38 PM] not_a_seagull: So then how do we get from the ending of Season 1 to here?
[5:38 PM] Lt Flops: well. if we can think of what world we want this ending set in, i think we can create a necessary link between the two
[5:39 PM] Lt Flops: is this the same world? thoth's spirit is still out there, shackled to the overworld by guilt, even after the nuke kills the form he embodied?
[5:39 PM] not_a_seagull: Yes
[5:40 PM] not_a_seagull: Let’s have this take place after a usage of Ennui, since humanity has wings now
[5:40 PM] Lt Flops: they use the Class-E amnestic to make people think this is mundane?
[5:41 PM] not_a_seagull: I mean, an apocalypse just happened, I’d think they’d do that
[5:42 PM] Lt Flops: hmm. my concern is that it feels like a reset switch. i think it would be more interesting if we saw this "new normal" play out instead
[5:42 PM] not_a_seagull: I see
[5:42 PM] Lt Flops: like, if the Foundation is powerful enough to use Ennui now, why couldn't they stop the meme
[5:42 PM] not_a_seagull: What if they modify some historical artifacts to make it look like it?
[5:43 PM] Lt Flops: to make this seem more natural? hmm maybe
[5:43 PM] not_a_seagull: Let’s burn that bridge when we get there
[5:43 PM] Lt Flops: like an "everyone agrees that this is how it was meant to be"
[5:43 PM] not_a_seagull: So humanity has wings now. What then?
[5:43 PM] Lt Flops: yeah, fair
[5:44 PM] Lt Flops: so yeah. everyone has wings. they have rid themselves of the shackle of the oppressor. Nibirdu exists. there's been contact with the Library. my sort of idea, i think, is that this new humanity is allowed access to the Library but i'm interested in hearing your thoughts on what it would look like
[5:45 PM] not_a_seagull: Im not that familiar with the library
[5:45 PM] not_a_seagull: What I was thinking is that some people have strange nightmares of Thoth, so they decide to try and permanently banish him
[5:45 PM] not_a_seagull: But instead they bring him back
[5:45 PM] Lt Flops: omg that gives me endgame vibes
[5:46 PM] Lt Flops: i mean, team bird season 1 is essentially infinity war parallel. honestly i dig that
[5:46 PM] not_a_seagull: Mhmm
[5:46 PM] not_a_seagull: (Except they actually beat Thoth that time)
[5:46 PM] Lt Flops: that seems logical. it also sounds like a grounded story, if we're focusing on the immediate, and on the person-to-person scale
[5:46 PM] Lt Flops: lol ye
[5:47 PM] not_a_seagull: And then Thoth comes back, they obviously try something like the first time around, it fails
[5:47 PM] not_a_seagull: Then somehow Merytaten comes to the picture
[5:48 PM] Lt Flops: like they scour the archives and rediscover Merytaten maybe
[5:49 PM] Lt Flops: when i picture Thoth returning, i can only imagine a military of bird-people going to fight peons
[5:49 PM] Lt Flops: memes are out of the picture, now it's flesh and blood
[5:50 PM] not_a_seagull: Here’s a small idea
[5:50 PM] not_a_seagull: What if Merytaten became Seshat?
[5:50 PM] Lt Flops: :open_mouth:
[5:50 PM] Lt Flops: merytaten is grill
[5:51 PM] Lt Flops: so is Thoth feeling guilt from something that happened when they were mortals, or deities? or both?
[5:51 PM] not_a_seagull: Mortals
[5:52 PM] not_a_seagull: What I was thinking is that Hermes shoots an arrow and makes Merytaten retrieve it, but something happens to Merytaten
[5:52 PM] not_a_seagull: Which drives Hermes to become Thoth
[5:52 PM] Lt Flops: ooooo i dig it
[5:52 PM] Lt Flops: merytaten is killed?
[5:52 PM] Lt Flops: or worse
[5:52 PM] Lt Flops: tbh death is a release anyway so "or worse" probably
[5:53 PM] not_a_seagull: Agreed
[5:53 PM] not_a_seagull: So they find Seshat’s mirror (we could probably tie this back to “modifying historical artifacts”
[5:53 PM] not_a_seagull: And try to use it
[5:53 PM] not_a_seagull: However it doesn’t work
[5:53 PM] not_a_seagull: But then they somehow get Merytaten out of the mirror
[5:54 PM] Lt Flops: we should probably plot this to a loose chronology
[5:54 PM] not_a_seagull: Agreed
[5:55 PM] Lt Flops: merytaten and hermes. something horrific happens to merytaten. merytaten becomes seshat, or embodies the mirror of seshat? then hermes goes mad/lusts after power and becomes thoth, and does all of the things in the middle egyptian kingdom/nibirdu shenanigans/betrayal of the boundless wellspring to piss off akheilos
[5:55 PM] Lt Flops: and then after thoth is killed, his spirit carries on, and they rediscover merytaten and find she is trapped in the mirror
[5:56 PM] not_a_seagull: In between that I’d say “events of Team Bird 1, they accidentally revive Thoth”
[5:56 PM] not_a_seagull: But yeah
[5:56 PM] Lt Flops: that's fair
[5:57 PM] Lt Flops: is Hermes literally becoming Thoth, and Merytaten literally becoming Seshat? or are Thoth and Seshat archetypal roles that they fulfill and eventually embody?
[5:58 PM] not_a_seagull: What would work better?
[5:58 PM] Lt Flops: i like the idea that these characters become deities. my only concern with that is that we might need to stretch some things to fit with the minor lore in Sacred Djehuti
[5:59 PM] not_a_seagull: I see
[5:59 PM] Lt Flops: because, it's sort-of implied that the deities of the Boundless Wellspring have always existed, or at least, have existed for a very long time
[6:00 PM] Lt Flops: if these roles already exist, and when the characters become deities, they embody them, i think that may work better
[6:00 PM] Lt Flops: not to complicate it of course
[6:00 PM] not_a_seagull: That would work
[6:01 PM] Lt Flops: hm. for Thoth to feel the guilt, i have to imagine that maybe he was responsible for whatever happened to Merytaten
[6:02 PM] not_a_seagull: I had an idea
[6:02 PM] Lt Flops: maybe Hermes dabbled in dark magicks before this, without telling Merytaten, and then some of his actions led to her imprisonment in the Mirror
[6:02 PM] Lt Flops: of course
[6:03 PM] not_a_seagull: An innocent childhood game; Hermes shoots an arrow and loses it, then makes Merytaten go get it for him
[6:04 PM] not_a_seagull: He never sees Merytaten again after that, and that’s what drives him to dark magic
[6:04 PM] Lt Flops: OOOOOOO
[6:04 PM] Lt Flops: i dig it
[6:07 PM] Lt Flops: so, pacing-wise. we have a lot of story here. we saw in the past, when writing the 001, that telling a story of this magnitude in a single article's narrative is difficult
[6:07 PM] not_a_seagull: So we should split it up
[6:07 PM] Lt Flops: ye
[6:07 PM] not_a_seagull: What i was thinking was
[6:08 PM] not_a_seagull: Tale part 1 -> scp about seshat’s mirror -> Tale part 2
[6:08 PM] Lt Flops: yes i like it
[6:08 PM] not_a_seagull: And then maybe a GoI format side story?
[6:08 PM] not_a_seagull: Probably not, actually
[6:09 PM] Lt Flops: if we find that the narrative grows unwieldy we can add another article
[6:09 PM] not_a_seagull: Agreed
[6:09 PM] not_a_seagull: Let’s plan to keep it medium-sized tho
[6:09 PM] Lt Flops: of course
[6:09 PM] Lt Flops: the less complicated, the better
[6:10 PM] Lt Flops: 3 articles is good
[6:11 PM] not_a_seagull: One covers the nightmares, and Thoth coming back
[6:11 PM] not_a_seagull: Two covers Seshat’s mirror and their attempt to end Thoth (which fails)
[6:11 PM] not_a_seagull: Three is when Merytaten lets Thoth go
[6:14 PM] Lt Flops: ooo
[6:14 PM] Lt Flops: yes. i think putting the midpoint in an SCP slot is good
[6:15 PM] not_a_seagull: Yeah. My writing ability will be limited for the next few weeks but hopefully I’ll be able to contribute
[6:15 PM] Lt Flops: no worries
[6:15 PM] Lt Flops: i'm trying to make an effort to get writing done as of late
[6:16 PM] not_a_seagull: Cool
[6:16 PM] not_a_seagull: Should we tell Ayers about this?
[6:16 PM] Lt Flops: yess
[6:16 PM] Lt Flops: if he has the time to
[6:17 PM] not_a_seagull: Want me to PM him?
[6:17 PM] Lt Flops: yis