Project "Warrior"- the story so far

I don't know how far I'll be able to take this, but I'm intrigued enough to post on this blog that's been otherwise DEAD for a great while...
so why not... it's at least something...

I have a couple names and I have a few circumstances already in place.

btw, the temporary title I'll give to this project is "Warrior"...
although my protagonist is really more of a swordman/samurai type...

I had something in mind that jumped to mind the first night as far as a title goes... I'd lost it, but it was either The or A "Warrior's"... and there was a third word I can't remember anymore.

The prologue divulged details... the last few seconds of an important duel. At least it was to my star. This invincible enemy she swore revenge on came up victorious and she's in disbelief. She may or may not have had him... he might have tricked her into believing that she had the upperhand when, in fact, he's 10 or 50x stronger than her.

All of the dialogue came from her. A desperation was in the narrative.
I'm sure the whole story will be from her POV, although there will be parts in the 3rd person. I'm not locking too many things in just yet.

I've written a couple sentences every day, which is good. That'll keep this going. As long as I still have questions that I have answers to, I think I'll be okay for a little while.

(Last night, I typed up a couple other scenes in my "vamp" story... just so I have them there so I can work on them later... its strange, the more I read/write about my previous workplace, the more I wonder if that was even real... it'd become so trival to me... but then again, I twisted the whole situation around in my mind in an effort to make me feel better... and I think it has in a way, sorta sick & twisted, but it has helped)
and it REALLY annoys the hell outta me, I cannot tell you... when Im doing an entry on any blog and my PC just freezes and does a few cycles... meanwhile, I can't add anything to what I'm working on... I've lost a few ideas that way... creative minds like me really hate that...

for the most part, I'm not going to map too much out. At least I won't do that on the same page as the actual story... otherwise, I start doing a lot of explaining and people, including myself, would forget what the characters were even doing on about in the story...
you know its bad when you do the same "stream of consciousness" thing you do while blogging in the stories...

and this is getting REALLY frustrating... I can't wait 10 minutes between paragraphs like this or I won't get anything done... ahhh!!
I swear if this computer wasn't so important to what little I have going for me, I'd thrown it against the wall by now...

I'm gonna use this venue for my movie blog, but apparently the trade-off is gonna be... I'll have it automatically saved every paragraph... which apparently takes FOREVER ... but at least its on record... meanwhile ive had far too many times... and this is happening over a 5 minute period, mind you, between all kinds of PC problems and what not... my Xanga blog, I've written entire entries... press enter and an error message comes up that says that I haven't written a new entry... like WTF... and I've lost entire entries... between that and losing my Internet signal...

what I'll probably do is type up on Word... and copy/paste every couple paragraphs, it'll auto-save and I'll have that going... its a lot faster than this...

now I forgot what I was saying...

I'm trying to label some bits of inspiration... if there is going to be any supernatural elements in this and part of me believes there will be... the model that comes to mind is the animé model with the characters looking the way they do and such... its also the way I've learned to sketch, so I'll be working from that angle.

After writing my prologue, I wrote a few bits of dialogue. I'd focused on that more than working on putting a whole scene together. I'll add what comes to mind as it does, but not worry about the details for a while

between two characters, I figure that this takes place at an infirmary tent or something of that nature... this doesn't take place in 21st century civilization, although I haven't nailed down where its set at...

one character is asking about her condition and the other gave details that kinda define the kind of person she is... the not-giving-up type... she's been aggravating her injuries, preventing them from healing because she's still angry about being defeated and almost killed by this invincible foe... who I will probably call I.F. for the moment just because invincible is such a long word to type... that might lead me to a name, who knows...

I wrote a couple bits of dialogue between this doctor or whoever is looking after her... and who I believe is an old friend of hers, someone she grew up with

yesterday I found a name...
usually I don't put a whole lot of thoughts into my names... like I'll pick whatever jumps to mind or feels right and I'll run with it... Jonas was kinda obvious after a while... I wanted something that at least sounded Biblical, therefore I have the -eriah suffix... he could have been an Isaiah for all I know... but the name was inspired from The Giver... the character Jonas with the pale eyes... and I also had my high school crush David with the pale blue eyes that I was inspired to put into my story when it transpired into the 20th/21st century

I didn't think I'd put much thought into the names to start out, but "Cassandra" just sounded right for her. Pronounciation: Ca-san-dra... not Ca-sawn-dra... Cassandara... there's something kinda regal about it, but its also something tough...
the image that came to mind was something out of Avatar... the last airbender, not James Cameron's movie... thats kinda annoying that Avatar came out and it was something different from the animé... therefore, they couldn't freaking using Avatar in their title...

now "the last airbender" has become a joke... a lot of people have called it one of the worst movies ever made... me, I don't really think it was THAT bad... it differed from the animé considerably... the most annoying error was the misprounciation of the protagonist...

his name is Aang... but in the Shyamalan film, it was pronounced Ung... eww.... everytime I heard it, I wanted to scream at the big screen that they're saying it WRONG...

Katara wasn't nearly as strong a character in this movie and Sokka was meant to be the comic relief, the comedian... although I thought Jackson Rathbone's performance was great... nice to see Jasper Cullen in a somewhat lighter role... he was the stronger of the siblings, which didn't echo the animé at all

let's see... and someone figured it would be a GREAT idea to have different looking people as the different benders... nationalities... like Aang was Asian, obviously... I don't know what Katara and Sokka were supposed to be... I don't remember much about the earth benders... but the fire benders were all Indian...

which I felt was ridiculous...
Zuko isn't Indian! Dev Petal didn't look anything like the character in the animé...

so as an adaptation of the series, the Shyamalan version was a failure because none of the characters were nailed...

but (see, there's my rambling again) with my warrior, Cassandra... I was trying out a few names from the series... what I immediately thought of... because of the color red, the scarlet in her uniform... I thought about Zuko's sister Azula... who is one of the series' villians... daughter of the Fire Lord and all that...
I'm trying to think, though, I'm hesistant to google with my PC like this... Zuko had a girlfriend or a love interest... and I'm thinking her name might have been Cassandra... but I'll have to look it up... cuz this will drive me NUTS

ok, I'm good... the love interest's name was Mai...
and maybe part of me is thinking about the sequel Avatar series that came out a year ago... as far as how Cassandra is dressed and such

and apparently... according to the little I read about the "Sonja" sequel series... Aang and Katara end up together cuz one of their kids is in the series... lol...

I haven't seen how the series ends, so I had no idea... I'd seen bits and pieces, but the furthest I'd ever seen was where the gang saw this mock-up play about their adventures where all of their characters are grossly exaggerated and/or nothing like they are in real life...
and after a little joke about Katara and Aang's relationship on stage, he asked her how she felt about him...
undecided... maybe a little uncomfortable with being pressured into answering the question... ultimately Katara said that she wasn't ready for a relationship until the Fire Lord was defeated

I come across so much stuff between the animé I watch and the movies I've seen... a lot of stuff works its way into my head when I write these things that I sometimes borrow ideas without realizing, not knowing where they come from
(and I got to wondering if Jackson Rathbone is descended from the famous Basil Rathbone... despite the fact I'm totally in the Sherlock Holmes brand, between the Guy Ritchie adaptation, reading the actual books and looking forward to the new show "Elementary"... I haven't seen the original Sherlock Holmes before)...

after the intital bits of dialogue, I ended one session with the sentence "Just give me a minute"

yesterday I wrote in a way I never had before... but with my notebooks, I'm kinda hesitant to put too much in when my vision isn't super clear cuz its a pain to erase everything... the life of erasers isn't long at all :-?

I wrote a few sentence fragments that came to mind to describe parts of the scenery... I haven't settled on a narrative style yet, so I'm just adding details that I can work into sentences later...
these aren't them by the way, but the overall gist of it

her eyes are bloodshot. she has sullen black hair. a firm, unmoving jaw.
bandages of varying colorations are wrapped around her legs, arms and torso.
scarlet warrior's uniform ripped in a few places
multiple lacerations still visible even with all the bandaging

a sword was laying to the side... dust on the handle and I just added that it was split, unable to be repaired...

I wrote a few bits of dialogue from him to kinda define him as well as add to the scenario

he's sorry for how things turned out.
he knew how much she wanted to exact her revenge for whomever she wanted to avenge
"I'm probably the last person you want to see"... although I'm still figuring that part out, to see if that has any relevence...

he ends with the sentiment that she needs to let her injuries heal or she's no good to anyone...
and "my friend Cassie knew when patience was the most important thing"

so I know for a fact that they grew up together, they were super close... and quite possibly, he's the only person who has called her "Cassie"

the question is what she's going to do in respond to his visit...

I don't even have a name... originally, I thought something like Damon... cuz Ian Solmenhader kinda came to mind... but I shot that down...

for the moment, I'll call him Ren...

I'm going into my animé background again and thinking that just maybe... they have a similiar relationship to the characters Rukia and Renji in Bleach... they grew up in the same troubled neighborhood, enrolled at the same time at an academy that would train them to be Soul Reapers

Rukia was a little skilled with Kito than swordfighting... Kito is spell-casting for the most part...
but she was adopted by one of the most powerful families in the Soul Society, the Kuchki Clan

meanwhile, Renji was motivated to push forward with his training and became a lieutant to a soul reaper captain in one of the court guard squads...

who happens to be the leader of the Kuchki Clan, Byakuya Kuchki... I believe, in his mind, his goal is to surpass him in strength because he's the one person that kinda stands between him and Rukia

I could go on about all the possible pairings of characters... but Renji certainly thinks that Rukia is the person he wants to end up with...

so paying a little bit of homage, I guess... I'll at least give this character the name "Ren" and see how it works out... or if something else comes to mind...

Cassandra is an unbelievably strong character... definitely in league with Katniss Everdeen with a little bit of Rukia and Katara... but she won't be quite the same

Rukia and Renji has a really strange relationship where I really don't understand why they relate to each other the way they do...
like Renji will tease her in instances and she'll push back and say she's doing just fine without his help... like its an automatic thing...

I don't want Cassandra and "Ren" to be like that at all...

the question I'm left with after I finished his last bit of dialogue... how will she react to his visiting her? which way will the conversation go?
will she flip out at him? will she be somewhat quiet about it, but fight back tears while saying "I almost had him"...

there's only so far I'm willing to go with that... I don't want her to mope around or burst into hysterical sobbing because things aren't going her way...
but after this failure, she'd become so volitle that she'd had to be sedated so she doesn't reopen wounds and aggravate injuries

One thing I kinda want to stay... I mean really stay away from...
I don't want her to fall into the Kill Bill stereotype... I'd never seen either of the movies, but cuz I'd seen some of Tarantino's stuff (after being so in love with "Inglorious Basterds"... GREAT movie), I probably will at some point

she fancies swordfighting, but I think the Kill Bill series is meant to pay homage to the old Bruce Lee movies...
I don't want to fall into that pitfall either

it will have some Japanese influence for sure, make no mistake about that...

I believe that her duty was to protect someone of royalty... I'm thinking a princess... again, going back to that night, Shanghai Noon was still kinda hovering in my mind... cuz Jackie Chan played one of her guards

I'm not planning to go into that relationship too much, certainly not right away...
but what I do know is that I.F. either killed the princess or kidnapped her... and Cassandra felt duty-bound to protect her...
she might believe that the princess is dead, but to push the storyline forward, she might still be alive... but not to her knowledge

spoiler alert, I guess...

hmm... it could be that Ren was the reason Cassandra failed to protect the princess... she gave her the night off duty because Ren insisted on going out with her or spending time with her... which they don't get to do anymore...
but in that one night where she was out of the picture, the princess got kidnapped and she flipped OUT on Ren for distracting her...

both are skilled at what they do, but I think I.F. might also have sorcery on his side... and Cassandra's journey in this story is gaining the ability to deal with him... maybe learning a little sorcery of her own...
working with fire & ice or maybe some other elements too... I'm not going to jump too far ahead and try to plan things out...

but along the way, I'm going to leave clues for myself to figure out more about these characters.