Metamorphosis

Compiled from the SpaceBattles thread.

Spoiler tags haven't changed.

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( Storm on the Horizon, Chapter Three )

Compiled from the initial posting on SpaceBattles. I've been finding it easier to write it in chunks over there.

Spoiler tags ahoy: Doctor Who after New!Series Three, but before Voyage of the Damned. Mass Effect 2 post-game, but before the Arrival and Lair Of The Shadow Broker DLC expansions.

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( Storm on the Horizon, Chapter One )

I've been kicking my personal head-canon around for a couple years and not writing any of it down, and I figured this would be a good exercise to get my hand back in the game. This is also a writing style I've seen back and forth around the internet, and it looked interesting.

This is very rough, so feel free to point out any inconsistencies or problems.

Theater of War canon, not necessarily sequential.

( Twenty Surprises for Moriyama Hiroshi )

Sorry, yesterday got hectic plus I couldn't decide what to write about. I've got a pretty good idea now, though.

A moment, in great detail
(Special Theater of War Out-Of-Timeline Snapshot Version)
(It didn't say it couldn't be fictional.)

( Snapshot Two )

I pulled this from the bulktext of my Airbender review. Let me actually grab a chapter of Theater of War and see what it says there.

EDIT: Grabbed my last chapter of Theater of War, and this is what it gave me.





...bit of a difference there.

Hello, eighteen-month delay. I kept getting this chapter out in spurts. Two paragraphs, lost interest. Two paragraphs, lost interest. But I told you I was chipping away at it. This thing hasn't been forgotten.

As always, comments and criticism. I'm afraid the chapter might seem disjointed with how long it took me to write it, so anything you point out can only help.

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( Chapter Five )

I'm afraid I've been thinking¹. Mostly about stories lately. Not specific stories, but the idea of stories in general.

Where did they come from, really? Most stories told today are some adaptation of older, classic stories, with a bit of real-world influence thrown in. Lord of the Rings? It's World War II with swords. Avatar? Take a look at the imperialistic and colonial world of 1600-1900 Europe. District 9? Schindler's List with lobsters².

Most "fresh" stories are basically the old tales told through new means. Instead of a princess and her entire kingdom being put to sleep for a hundred years until Prince Charming comes along, let's put the prince under the spell and have the sexy warrior princess come and slay the dragon! While you're at it, throw in a whole cartload of anachronistic jokes for both the kids and the parents watching. (See also: The awesomeness that is Shrek.)

I'm not saying any of these are bad, necessarily (aside from Avatar; there could have been so much more awesome there than there was). District 9 was the best movie that came out last year, and should have won Best Picture hands-down. And the re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland was absolutely phenomenal³. I don't know, there's just something about pretty girls taking charge and grabbing the biggest sword they can handle. (They say it's a Freudian metaphor⁴.)

No, all these things can be great if they're handled well. I'm simply making an observation: There are too few original ideas left. Even the most original stories take influences from what has gone before; I've started reading Ursula Kaye Le Guin, who loves to take simple "What if?" ideas and run with them to their logical conclusions. The Left Hand of Darkness, for example, explores a society where a group of humans have evolved to be completely hermaphroditic; they turn male or female as necessary for breeding and are completely androgynous otherwise⁵. Definitely an interesting concept, and it's an incredibly captivating story. An extremely original idea, in fact, with influences and references to human history, psychology, and insights into basic human nature.

My point, though. Where do stories come from? Everything seems to be cyclical; new stories reference or pay tribute to those that have gone before, and in turn go on to become referenced in other stories yet to come.

Terry Pratchett puts a fair amount of this in his novels, even going so far as to make it self-aware. The Discworld is held together with magic the way ours is held together by physics, and a vast majority of that magic is ruled by a concept called "Narrative Causality". He goes on at length about it - especially in the Witches of Lancre books, since most of what a witch does is ride stories, using them to achieve the desired effect - but what it boils down to is this: Things work in that world because of stories. When a conflict arises between common sense and narrative convention, the story will always win out⁶. Stories are so much a part of the Discworld that it is now completely impossible for the third and youngest son of a king to go on a quest that has previously ended the lives of his older brothers and not succeed.

I've had a story idea kicking around in my head for about three years that plays a bit off that same concept. It's not an entirely original idea, but as I've said, it's hard to find something that is. What it is, though, is interesting, and I really hope I can do it justice.

You guys will be the first to know if I can.

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1. A dangerous pasttime, I know.


2. Which is funny in and of itself 'cause that means that they can never keep kosher.


3. Even without the fact that Trekkiegirl and I couldn't get past the fact that the girl who plays Alice looked so strikingly like Tessa that Trekkiegirl wanted to go out and buy an Alice dress for her right that moment.


4. Although this is a phallusy.


5. Not unlike Marilyn Manson.


6. Except once in the case of Nobby Nobbs, and even that doesn't count 'cause the humor aspect won out even against conventional storytelling.

In order to keep everything organized, everything for Theater of War will be here.

Table of Contents

Character Profiles
Only original characters will be given profiles. If you want information on the canon characters that appear in Theater of War, there are a multitude of resources available.


Jounin
Kurohisa Gendou
Kurobana Ren

Chuunin
Moriyama Hiroshi
Inuzuka Kensuke
Sonozaki Hotaru

Genin
Moriyama Yukiko



Chapters
The main story.


Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five


Snapshots
A series of one-shot forays into the timeline of the Theater of War AU and original characters. Not chronological.


Snapshot: One Year Before Kyuubi
Snapshot: Kyuubi Attack on Konoha

I told you I was going to do something like this, right? Every so often, I'm going to do a one-shot of the characters in a different time period, both to keep myself in the writing groove and to expand these new characters' place in the world of Naruto.

Here's the first part. I may or may not title them later.

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( Snapshot One )

Wow, so this took me a long time to write. There's a lot about the last bit that doesn't flow right; comments and criticism are always appreciated.

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( Chapter Three )