The Gathering Darkness (the Connor series) - Dirk B. (Page 33 of 57)

instead of Martin Luther, perhaps "Batman". Less political

I put up a piece of Dune fan fiction under short stories for those interested. I needed the break from my own universe.

It's covered in the book. This was supposed to be a simple battle against an upstart duke. The Emperor was used to being surrounded by sycophants and staff, including hairdressers, dog handlers, etc. It was meant to be a sporting event. If that doesn't sway you, well then she was there because Herbert needed her for story purposes. :-)

Your should throw in a few comments and collect the points.

Having taken a much-needed break from Saving Connor for the Dune story, I realize the problem is I'm bored with the detective half of my story. There are three more cardinals to kill, and other than manner of death, it'll be more of the same dreary detective work. Clues, false leads, interrogations, etc. There's nothing to keep it fresh. I was planning to form a special tactical unit in act 2 led by the inspectors to focus specifically on hunting for the Antichrist, which would include chase scenes, explosions, gun battles, etc. I'm trying to decide if I can pull the tactical unit right up to the beginning of the story and have the inspectors and the Church already in the process of hunting for the Antichrist based on a rapidly increasing number of deaths among the clergy over a period of years. That would break a *lot* of stuff, though.

Well, shit. I went back and reread much of this thread for past ideas on how I had considered handling the cardinal killings/suicides to see if I can improve the detective half of this story. Not nearly enough tension at present to keep me interested. Turns out I already pretty much considered half a dozen ways of doing things, which resulted in numerous versions of scene 1.2 (first cardinal meets the Antichrist). The current approach evolved from the other five I punted. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

One new option is to pose all of the dead cardinals crucifixion-style, hanging from high on a wall. Cardinal Vitale would be nailed above the high altar. Maybe they even died from being crucified? Lets face it, these cardinals are not in great health to begin with. Death by crucifixion is probably the only violent form of death that Catholic readers might tolerate. It begs the question, though, how the Antichrist got the cardinals up high on a wall by himself. He's very powerful, but nailing someone against a high wall probably requires more than one killer, and I don't want to introduce more demons if I can avoid it. The focus should be on the AC.

I also still have the option of having them die of sheer terror. That was an option I considered at one point. Not sure how to build on that, though.

Manner of death only buys me maybe 5% more tension. It's the slow pace of the investigation that's killing me. Problem is, if the killings pile up quickly, then all of Rome will know about it and a huge police task force would be set up to investigate the deaths. I don't have enough info on Italian police procedures to do the task force, unless I use the idea of a special dedicated tactical team from the outset (i.e., made up any way I like). Kind of like Men in Black, minus the humor.

Perhaps also make Campagna an alcoholic. After all, it was her getting totally wasted that made it possible for someone to rape her. The rape and kidnapped child would make her turn even more to the bottle.

Q: Do you /have/ to kill 3 cardinals?

I mean, could it be one cardinal, then a high-speed chase complete with Fast-and-Furious vehicular stunts, then a 2nd cardinal? Why specifically cardinals?

I mean, if it  were say 1 bishop, 5 lay-betheren, 1 poor altar boy and a cheerleader, maybe all of Rome doesn't have to know because there's a holy day coming up and the church is fighting media speculation that the Vatican is unsafe. By choosing so high up the ladder, have you built yourself a bed of nail to sleep on?

...need to be murders before Connor leaves ... so that Connor can be fully ruled out as a suspect.
>As stated elsewhere, Connor can be in two places at once (via miracles he's capable of)

Four total seemed like a reasonable number.
>Honestly, one is enough

>He may be ruled out anyway since he's only 175 cm tall while the killer is 185 cm.
>Same problem. What's to keep him from growing 10cm when he's in a bloodlust?

some mystery about how the Antichrist is able to kill in Rome and the Holy Land at virtually the same time
>some mystery about how [Connor] is able to kill in Rome and the Holy Land at virtually the same time
(I fixed your text for you)

Hmm. I'm definitely leaning toward crucifixions for the manner of all four deaths. Cardinals are ideal since they each are the titular head of a church in Rome. I could kill them in their own churches. The downside is that Angels & Demons also targeted four cardinals, successfully killing three. The fourth almost died but for the heroics of Tom Hanks's character. The other downside is that now all of the killings will be identical, further complicating my desire to keep the story fresh as it proceeds. There would be no accomplices like the gravedigger to hunt down. The gravedigger led the inspectors to Father Coppola, who conveniently keels over when arrested. It mixes things up somewhat, but involves two scenes of the inspectors reporting to higher ups and two interrogation scenes. If I kept going, I'd need even more of those.

Here's a silly observation. Why does a dark being who can practically destroy a church need to turn into fog to slip under a door? You'd think he could simply turn the lock using his powers and walk in. This comes up because I'm thinking of getting rid of the turning-into-fog part. Necessary as I redefine what demons in human form can and can't do. They can sample dead tissue and assume the dead person's identity (e.g., the chief exorcist of Rome), but if the demon dissolves, it will need to sample other dead tissue to reconstitute itself as someone else. I think this limitation should be true up to and including Satan himself since he too is a demon, albeit the most powerful one. Too bad, since it would be cool for him to change from human form into a suitably horned beast at will.

I vaguely a (windsurfing?) scene in the /other/ books and recall thinking to myself how little I could imagine the original cast having a relaxing windsurf. Really stood out to me - can't even remember which book it was but it stood out that much.

Vaguely recalls of Star Wars where we take 15 minutes off the action to show Anakin riding buffalo-like creatures while he falls in love, and I was thinking aw geez, Luke never got a vacation amounting to 10% of the show time to ride a buffalo

Time to move on to Dune Messiah. I'm only one chapter into it and can already see the huge differences between Frank Herbert's writing and that of his son. With Dune and Dune Messiah, there is incredible subtlety in the writing that forces me to think what the hell elder Herbert is trying to say. There is virtually none of that in his son's writing.