Minichan

Topic: Can you guys help me come up with a short plot?

Anonymous A started this discussion 15 years ago #11,635

Basically, I need an episodic kind of plot to give the exposition that when you die, your life is repeated over and over again. Hopefully nothing too memorable or exciting, because it ties into the main story arc and I want most people to have forgotten about it by the time that it becomes relevant. I thought maybe I could have some kind of creature that kills you and feeds on the "life potential energy" that you emit when you 'head back to the start', but then I realised that Dr Who already had something similar and people will just say I ripped it off.

All that is required is that it features [main character] entering the situation and solving it.

It's set in futuristic post-apocalyptia, but the full setting hasn't been worked out so far so feel free to suggest any kind of story.

inb4 "fuck off OP come up with your own cash cow" - I won't be making any money off any of the entire story, I'm writing it for fun.

fucks !VoCaLoNunI joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 2 minutes later[^] [v] #209,594

think about this though

the universe is infinite

which means there's a damn-near guarantee that something of a duplicate will occur

which means you will live forever, but periodically lose your memory and respawn

Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 32 seconds later, 2 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #209,595

Sounds like Groundhog Day.

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 34 seconds later, 3 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #209,597

@209,594 (fucks !VoCaLoNunI)

Yeah but it's important that this story universe has you looping back and living your life again. It's the entire motivation of the big bad's nefarious scheme.

fucks !VoCaLoNunI replied with this 15 years ago, 22 seconds later, 3 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #209,599

@previous (A)
Oh.

I got nothing then.

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 18 minutes later, 22 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #209,603

@previous (fucks !VoCaLoNunI)

ok, thanks anyway

sluggy joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 22 minutes later, 44 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #209,619

@209,597 (A)
You live your own life over and over? With memories or without? Is it A natural event or technological? Is it real or simulated or does that not matter?

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 45 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #209,622

@previous (sluggy)

Without. Like you die, and then you're reborn and you live your life again for infinity. Natural event. Real, because I'm drawing parallels to Neo in the hope that people will think I'm leading towards a simulation.

Anonymous E joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 4 minutes later, 49 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #209,624

@previous (A)
huh, this thread seemed like it was going off in some kind of buddist/hindu reincarnation direction thingy

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 3 minutes later, 53 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #209,628

@previous (E)

It's not really going to be explained why it happens, I just somehow need it in the narrative that they know it happens.

sluggy replied with this 15 years ago, 24 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #209,648

@previous (A)
You live the same life? Like you loop back, or you are reborn in time after you died.

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 13 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #209,649

@previous (sluggy)

Like you loop back. Minor variations can occur (which may sometimes cause major variations), but for all intents and purposes you live the same life.

(Edited 17 seconds later.)

brie !OudrPWaUDQ joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 4 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #209,650

A hilariously genre-blind evil pharmaceutical corporation has arisen and is recycling their employees, draining every last bit of panaceasium from their over-worked egos as the corrupt CEOs work them to death over and over again in a never-ending cycle of corporate training and ladder climbing, but they never reach the top. Our heroes navigate the corporate hierarchy, rising higher each time around until they stumble upon the horrible secret of how the corporation's healing compounds are really made. Our heroes must figure out how to destroy the corporation from the inside and break the cycle of draining within one lifetime (shortened by the effects of long, grueling shifts), but it won't be easy as the higher-ups are always hatching insidiously genius traps for our heroes to distract them from their real goals of corporate sabotage. These evil plots can be hilariously convoluted and terrible, but to the heroes they will seem very dastardly and cunning, until the evil-badguy-of-the-week blows it all by revealing the flaw in the plan in a dramatic speech.

The corporation could be slowly taking over the world, as it branches out into other areas than pharmaceuticals, until most of the world population are employees.
Should be quite easy for a large evil company to take over in a ruined world, as they would seem like a godsend to the people.

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 3 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #209,651

@previous (brie !OudrPWaUDQ)

But if there was a megacorporation, you'd expect them to show up once again. I want it to be such a minor story that it's totally and utterly forgotten to most people by the time the main crisis comes around.

brie !OudrPWaUDQ replied with this 15 years ago, 50 seconds later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #209,652

@previous (A)
are you planning on working this into an already existing concept?

you could have it start out as a small thing, like it's only in one town or something, and the main character thinks they've defeated them at first, but there are small hints throughout that it still exist in some form.

(Edited 2 minutes later.)

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 7 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #209,657

@previous (brie !OudrPWaUDQ)

> are you planning on working this into an already existing concept?

Yeah, I had the idea of the setting and the main crisis, but lacked a good motivation for the villain to do what she's doing.

sluggy replied with this 15 years ago, 7 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #209,661

@209,649 (A)
Are people aware this happens?

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 9 hours later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #209,752

@previous (sluggy)

It's portrayed as a recent scientific discovery by the Big Bad, who is the leader of a government, and is kept a secret.
:

Please familiarise yourself with the rules and markup syntax before posting.