The Writing Prompts Thread

[CarlManvers2019]

As the title says, this is a place to dump your ideas for stories, both original and fanfic

Since I got kicked out of both WritingPrompts & DirtyWritingPrompts

One for accumulating minor offenses to do with adding to the text in the description, the latter because apparently they’re really fucking vanilla and because they noticed my impregnation theme and decided they’re all the same thing

Okay, this place’ SFW but go dump your more SFW non sexual ideas here and maybe just maybe, someone takes it up for a quick snip

Unlikely to be me

 

[Deleted member 88]

Here’s an alien invasion idea I haven’t ever seen done.

The aliens don’t invade directly because of other alien powers and also a desire to minimize their own losses.

They also think the humans would welcome them given certain preconditions.

What are those preconditions you ask?

War, chaos, and lots of it.

Basically the aliens manipulate human factions and societies-starting countless wars, revolutions, multiple civil wars, a plague or two, and basically seek to trigger humanity’s “faultlines”-geopolitical, cultural and social.

Producing maximum chaos and carnage.

An almost global civil war, the aliens aim to have this situation continue for about a decade or so.

And then take over-restore order, and face minimal resistance, because the human population will be grateful that the chaos and conflict is ending. No matter how.

The plot could be entirely from the alien perspective, or your intrepid human protagonist who realizes the dramatic increase in frequency and death rates of all conflicts(and triggering many more) is odd, and seemingly being directed for a specific purpose.

At the end of the “time of trouble” the aliens intervene to “save humans from their barbarism”-which they coincidentally manipulated and escalated.

The world too exhausted and broken by war, ecological disaster, disease and social strife(I’m imagining a radical escalation in class tensions and tensions within societies over politics, religion and so on-to the point many western countries collapse into civil war) submits without too much fuss.

The story could end with the human protagonist realizing that any resistance would have been pointless, the aliens though went the extra step of ensuring they were welcomed, not actively or even passively resisted.

And leaving the implications of that open. Does humanity have a future as some subject race in an interstellar empire or lesser species in an alien confederation, or are we all doomed? Or at least our fate will no longer be in our hands. Such questions would be left for the reader.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

The story could end with the human protagonist realizing that any resistance would have been pointless, the aliens though went the extra step of ensuring they were welcomed, not actively or even passively resisted.

Honestly not a scifi concept you see everyday, when I think about it, plenty of advanced alien races are pretty stupid and aren’t doing things that would be less troublesome or more practical

Hell, I think why even bother raiding Earth for water when you can get it while it’s already frozen in outer space.

 

[Deleted member 88]

Honestly not a scifi concept you see everyday, when I think about it, plenty of advanced alien races are pretty stupid and aren’t doing things that would be less troublesome or more practical

Hell, I think why even bother raiding Earth for water when you can get it while it’s already frozen in outer space.

To me, it works really well(I know tooting my own horn).

Because you can have the alien conspiracy and alien invasion trope, and also take into consideration RL problems and conflicts, and ask “what if aliens made them worse”.

The aliens might be indifferent to human losses, or they might desire the human populace accept their overlordship-even if they can outgun us, they’d rather have our allegiance or semi willing submission.

To the point people are glad that human governments and institutions are being disbanded and alien soldiers(or robots) or what not-are handing out food and medical supplies.

It could serve as a commentary on the divided world we have today, and ask the question-“if people are broken enough, will they resist or accept surrendering their freedom in return for security again”.

They could intervene and crush us without trouble, but they want as little trouble as possible, and also they don’t want to trigger a response from their rivals-but selling it as “intervening to help the poor savages”, that works.

Sort of like the dominion’s plan in Star Trek-to create wars and conflicts throughout the AQ, and then once everyone was exhausted and broken send in the Jem’hadar to “restore order”.

Just on a much smaller scale.

Is how I imagine it.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Say, ever read John Ringo’s Legacy of Aldenata/Posleen War? I read a bit but according to spoilers, while a future alien invasion was gonna happen, the aliens helping humanity were gonna manipulate things in order to turn the human race into their military enforcers whilst making use of promoted incompetence to wipe out possible dissenters

Okay too spoiler-y admittedly

Here’s an original prompt I think you may be interested in, could be serious or really comedic

A Peasant Girl avoids a marriage with a man she hates and kills him on their wedding day. Like Dark Agnes of Robert Ervin Howard’s works, it’s because she’s both forced into it and because the wedding was moved in advance to prevent her from
running away

She goes onto become a well-known adventurer in a land where it’s rather unusual for women to NOT be conforming to the whole “Stay In The Kitchen & Push out babies” attitude

Then she goes onto save The Kingdom and expect a reward

Her reward?

Except it’s the King’s Hand and well she still sorta gets the Kingdom

Comedy or Seriousness

 

[Deleted member 88]

Could be amusing, especially if she either accepts or can’t reject the offer.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Could be amusing, especially if she either accepts or can’t reject the offer.

Reject the marriage and the king will feel extremely “slighted”, thus eclipsing even having saved the Kingdom from a large threat and putting a large bounty on her head.

If she accepts well....I am thinking the King’s way older than her, given the beard, so definitely maybe ambition influenced....unhappy marriage

Or she plans on running away during the wedding again. Wouldn’t want to be a broodmare even if it means she gets rich

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Here’s another

In a Post-Apocalyptic World, wherein the majority of people died out

One guy survived and spends pretty much all his time reading books, comicbooks, light novels, watching movies, playing videogames etc

The whole time he’s not one bit lonely or caring

Then somehow he meets survivors who bump into him

Suddenly he starts for the first time in months. PISSED. Really fucking pissed

“No man is an island”
“Fuck You”

Sums it up when they keep on insisting on being near each other for emotional support and sanity

Before anyone asks, current events IRL are stressing me, my family especially my dad can’t accept I want/prefer to be alone. Okay. yeah my dad really wants company since that thing happened, but it’s best NOT from me

 

[Deleted member 88]

I enjoy my solitude as much as anyone, but I want a family one day. So I can’t say I feel the same.

Here’s an idea.

Humanity at the current state discovers hyper advanced technology.

FTL
Inertial dampeners
Plasma weapons
Super fast AI
And a whole load of other sci fi technologies.

The catch is that society is not ready for a lot of this stuff and begins to break down because of it.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

I enjoy my solitude as much as anyone, but I want a family one day. So I can’t say I feel the same.

Here’s an idea.

Humanity at the current state discovers hyper advanced technology.

FTL
Inertial dampeners
Plasma weapons
Super fast AI
And a whole load of other sci fi technologies.

The catch is that society is not ready for a lot of this stuff and begins to break down because of it.

I’m thinking the breakdown is due to people trying to leave earth en masse, no real goal, AI replacing too many people in jobs, the FTL being weaponized by terrorists, too much unemployment

 

[Deleted member 88]

Definitely included.

Also lots of people lose jobs, and warfare changes too fast even for the US to react effectively.

It would address the relationship between society and technology and how technology is reflective of the society in which it is used and produced.

Spring machine guns to hunter gatherers and witness a breakdown of social order in a grand and very violent fashion.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Spring machine guns to hunter gatherers and witness a breakdown of social order in a grand and very violent fashion.

Say, that sorta made me think of a different Post Apocalyptic Story idea from the usual

Basic Premise: Civilization is actually coming back worldwide or former-nationwide

Thing is, for the people used to living a very “Wild Wild West” sort of life, civilization complicates things and also goes “you can’t do that anymore, it’s illegal”

Like carrying firearms, buying and selling whatever, living in an abandoned mall(but to begin with not truly legally owning it in the civilized sense), can’t build your own weapons & armor etc

Sure it’s safer, but some people are too used to the old ways and some are actually eager for a fight

 

[f1onagher]

I've been workshopping a DC/Submarine Titans idea partially to see if I can turn into a regular story rather than default to a quest with it. The starting premise is that the Kryptonite meteor from Batman/Superman Public Enemies hits Earth after the heroes fail to stop it. They do manage to shatter it and slow it down though, so rather than wiping out the planet it 'merely' devastates huge portions of the surface and starts to melt the Earth's ice caps. The following chaos, plus the loss of Batman, Superman, and Luthor as potential leaders leave the planet unable to pull a rabbit out of its hat and things digress rapidly.

When the smoke starts to clear a new series of factions emerge. STAR labs, with the help of the Justice Leauge established a number of orbital habitats to serve as a shelter for the intellectual and scientific elite, the justification being that only a scientific miracle would save the planet. The real result is an elitist micronation resented by all those still earthbound that struggles to support its own hastily assembled habitats let alone begin work on new world-saving technologies.

Cadmus and other government associated organizations use Mr. Freeze and other technological genius villains to create a safe haven under the rapidly melting north pole. They lose their governmental mandate fairly early and tend to operate as a militaristic rouge state. (The White Sharks in the equation if you will)

Atlantis obviously becomes the world's superpower overnight with the expansion of the oceans, but Aquaman has his hands full dealing with not only the societal and ecological collapse of Atlantis' home reigon, but a flood of human refugees from both sides of the Atlantic as governments desperately dropped underwater habitats to serve as emergency shelters as the waters rose. The fact that Atlantis has always been more of a collection of city-states than a nation requires him to start some serious restructuring if he wishes to save large populations of both air and water breathers.

Off the west coast, Green Arrow and whichever Bat-family member took over for Bruce manage to build a series of actually useful and self-sufficient underwater and floating settlements. These are promptly overrun by people fleeing the collapsing west coast and the heroes that inherit leadership here struggle to create a society in the wild west that is the Pacific ocean.

Old World governments form around remaining land. For example, the US establishes a new capital in the Appalachians and uses its intact Navy to govern both surface territories in North America along with submerged habitats in the Gulf and what used to be the east coast.

The original purpose was for it to be an Aquaman quest, but I started wondering if I couldn't use the idea as a worldbuilding prompt. So, what are your thoughts on the general idea and do you have any ideas to add to the stew?

 

[CarlManvers2019]

The original purpose was for it to be an Aquaman quest, but I started wondering if I couldn't use the idea as a worldbuilding prompt. So, what are your thoughts on the general idea and do you have any ideas to add to the stew?

How about technology involving space travel & colonization? Earth isn’t the only habitable place, nor are satellites just a place to live

Also, I think Lex Luthor’s craziness eventually comes into play again, sure he’s a pretty good leader, manager, engineer and scientist but he is STILL obsessed with Superman

 

[CarlManvers2019]

@f1onagher
I know I've proposed it before, but here I go, what if the X-Men and the Avengers and other superhero groups sorta "fused" and Professor X instead of making a school for mutants, made one for superhuman in-general

Said school is kept secret and has non-mutant superhuman/superhero teachers alongside Badass Normals teaching them how to control their powers and fight

They even help mutants against anti-mutant terrorist groups like the Purifiers and Friends of Humanity, this over time makes people realise that superheroes are "with the freaks" and also remember "they're freaks too!"

This causes superheroes over time to be marginalized and for there to maybe be laws against pseudo-mutants existing

Knowing that superhuman powers can be passed on, over time prisons for supervillains have either executions or sterilizations alongside bounties

Years later, Professor X and the other founders of this union sorta wonder if it was ever a good idea to associate themselves to begin with

Not sure what the supervillain reaction will be

 

[f1onagher]

While that makes more sense than the canon 'mutants bad, every other meta ok' thing X-men has going on I'm not certain how well it would gell with the rest of the universe. A lot of characters, particularly Avengers, get disrupted in translation into X-men characters. Also, the sterilization/execution stuff automatically pushes this alternate scenario in Cable bad future territory which I, like all Marvel fans, have been conditioned to blow off. I'm probably not the best guy to ask as I've always been rather cool towards the X-men comics, Wolverine and his associated characters excepted. And I really do not like Professor X, even in the cartoons.

Oh and if the government does go for the draconian options they better pray that they never lose monopoly of force. Because the moment the supervillains get one over them its game over.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Oh and if the government does go for the draconian options they better pray that they never lose monopoly of force. Because the moment the supervillains get one over them its game over.

They’re lucky that they mostly bully superheroes and mutants who are holding back and consciously going out of their way to not living up to accusations and are just running away

I don’t think types like Wade Eiling from Justice League Animated ever account for the supervillains

 

[f1onagher]

They’re lucky that they mostly bully superheroes and mutants who are holding back and consciously going out of their way to not living up to accusations and are just running away

I don’t think types like Wade Eiling from Justice League Animated ever account for the supervillains

Eiling is frustrating because the man has a point but he loses it over his hateboner for the League.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Eiling is frustrating because the man has a point but he loses it over his hateboner for the League.

And he goes for the much weaker and unpowered(but still very skilled and near superhuman)heroes instead of going after any supervillains to begin with

I wonder what became of him, in-universe

 

[f1onagher]

And he goes for the much weaker and unpowered(but still very skilled and near superhuman)heroes instead of going after any supervillains to begin with

I wonder what became of him, in-universe

Someone put him on an asteroid and chucked it out into space I think. Patriot Act was a classic JLA episode though. I miss the old Timm-verse. The new YJ one is alright, but it's not as good.