I assume they saw each other more than once. Or that at least he was keeping his eye on her and hubby. After all, these were the first humans. Everyone would have been curious, and Satan would have been jealous of their special relationship with God.
Also, she still looks exactly as she did back then. I'm assuming her glorified body looked as she did when she was created. Otherwise, you would have a lot of glorified geriatrics in wheelchairs.
Better yet, remove Satan's comment to Romano at the end of book one that God's minions were forbidden from interfering. However, then I'd have to find a reason why Phanuel, the Archangel of Judgement, doesn't blow Connor's cover. Maybe Phanuel simply chose on his own not to interfere, knowing that God and Satan were in the middle of a final challenge. Moses and Elijah are both supernatural humans (they "could" be the Two Witnesses from Revelation), and they suspect something is up with Connor, but they're not entirely sure what until the end of book one. Eve is supernatural as well since the only way she could return to Earth is as a glorified human. Since I need them all to interfere to some extent, I can't allow Satan to prevent interference by humans. Maybe God insists "only angels" won't interfere, or he sneaks that detail past Satan by volunteering that angels will not interfere until Judgement Day.
One minor issue is that Revelation's Two Witnesses in Catholicism represent the Church's witness to the world of Christ's divinity. There are no supernatural beings involved, except in some Protestant denominations. I added them to the book to poke a little fun at the Left Behind series, which tries to interpret everything in Revelation literally, except when it's impossible to do so (e.g., the dragon sweeping stars from the heavens). So, Moses and Elijah are just a couple of human kooks who have special powers, not the real Moses and Elijah returned to Earth. I may use them to represent a common Protestant interpretation of Revelation throughout the books, although I'll have to hint more clearly that that's what they are. I'm thinking at some point in book one I should have them appear, sitting on a bench and reading either a Left Behind book or a Protestant Bible, or one of each.
I don't think such a weapon satisfies my story requirements. Firing the weapon just a few times drains the ship of energy, including all the reserves stored in atreidite. To continue firing, you have to be willing to drive your neutrino reactor beyond its safety limits. I'm talking about a reactor big enough and powerful enough to power the needs of an entire dreadnought (the Hercules).
The weapon I've currently defined requires that the Hercules somehow converts the energy into some state/phase that allows the fired weapon's quanta of energy to pass through the shields and thereby slam St. James's destroyers as if they had no shields, pretty much crippling all three ships with just a couple of shots each.
Dirk B. wrote:Naturally, this would cause hard sci-fi fans to vomit, but my target audience is space opera fans.
Don't target hard sci-fi... this is not that story. Space opera is your market.
Hard sci-fi is 100% about the explainable. Everything else is magic. A story gets very little wriggle room outside the unexplainable.
Story: We change matter-energy to a previously unknown state
Hard-sci-fi: What's the name of the state?
Story: A new state. One that fits [X] requirement.
Hard-sci-fi: But [X] is impossible according to our current understanding of the universe
Story: Extrapolate: Some new rule current rules cannot explain
Hard-sci-fi: Well, current rules cannot explain it. It's magic
That's why I said my target audience is space opera fans. Right now, I'm just looking for a place to slip in/bolt on property X to superweapons fire that allows it to pass through shields but not matter. It's a replacement for mattergy, which I always knew I would toss from the story once I came up with something better. It'll only be used in chapter one. I just need to be careful that my cacas doesn't outright contradict well-known facts about physics.
I definitely should have taken physics in high school and university, though. I could have done a minor in physics or even math, although I don't recall if I even knew about minors back then.
Actually, I was referring to energy, not matter. "State" is probably a bad term for energy. Since the fired energy beams are just photons, I'm hoping to add some non-existent "phase" that energy can be in, which has yet to be discovered. I'm going to have to dig into photons, though, to see where I might be able to add some B.S. property or phase to it. My previous writeup had the fired energy come and go from our dimension based on something the weapon did to the energy.
After way too many hours wasted on the opening battle's superweapon, I decided the weapon can alter the fired photons in some way (e.g., forcing them into some previously unknown state) which can pass around other electromagnetic particles unimpeded (e.g., shields), but are stopped by matter (e.g., a ship's hull), causing the latter to go boom! Am I done?
Of course, this assumes that sci-fi weapon blasts are simply a lot of photons.
Can anyone tell me if this impossible weapon is even remotely close to real physics? Naturally, this would cause hard sci-fi fans to vomit, but my target audience is space opera fans.
It's an interesting idea. But excluding women from the definition of minions seems a little too obvious a mistake for one of the greatest (former) angels to make. A better way to do it may be to give Eve instructions that she is to do everything Satan asks (i.e., "not interfere", as Satan demanded). So, she can be there as long as she does what he tells her. She wouldn't agree to kill someone, but God already knows that about Eve, without even looking forward in time. So, He's free to tell her, do exactly what you're told.
SPOILER ALERT: Just so I can stop dancing around this topic, Connor's soul is that of Adam, and his companion is the glorified form of Eve.
I'd love to place Eve into Connor's inner circle, there to watch over him and to simultaneously work against the Unholy Trinity while pretending to be part of the conspiracy all along. That would give her a great role. She could wear a Mission Impossible-style mask that looks like Dr. Lombardi for the decade+ that she's known De Rosa and been part of his conspiracy; she'd also have to disguise her voice, but she's had a few thousand years to practice that. The reason Satan doesn't recognize he's dealing with a glorified individual in a mask is because Eve/Lombardi is able to hide the glorified element of herself using limited powers Eve received when she was glorified. Sort of like Emperor Palpatine was able to stand before Jedi and hide his true nature.
Since Satan told Romano at the end of book one that God's minions were forbidden from interfering as part of the rules agreed to between God and Satan, I'll need to figure out an exception for her that doesn't break the rules.
The original problem is the lack of strong female characters in my Connor series, except of course for Connor's mother, Detective Campagna. She's the Princess Leia of my trilogy (ie, no other major female character in the whole trilogy).
The rest of what's written above is just me brainstorming/writing up potential solutions to the problem.
I seem to have a recurring problem with the Connor series in that there simply aren't enough strong female characters.
Given the massive headaches you already have to deal with, this one may be something you simply lean into / roll with.
That's what Tylenol is for. 
I think the best solution is for Connor's former companion to come to Earth in her glorified body. While there is nothing in Scripture that says humans would ever do that, it would be less offensive than adding yet another reincarnated being.
If I were to make it Dr. Lombardi, then she's in the story from book one, and I can make her a more prominent character, dropping hints that she's more than she seems. Although it would be odd that she and Satan didn't recognize each other as supernatural beings, especially since she would look the same as she did when she lived millennia ago (except young again).
The other alternative is to introduce a new character from book two on. Although I wouldn't reveal her true identity until the end of book two or somewhere in book three, she could be there to assist Connor in some TBD way. He wouldn't fully recognize her from his former life because his soul doesn't fully awaken until the end of book two.
I also need to find a meaty role for Romano and Antonio. I may get rid of Antonio permanently after book one.
peterwilliam is another. Has a post in premium too.
Quandary. I seem to have a recurring problem with the Connor series in that there simply aren't enough strong female characters. The biblical figure who serves as Connor's soul, had a female companion, and both played important roles in the events of the distant past. Since the male figure returns as Connor, I considered giving him a girlfriend, who happens to be his former companion. I didn't care for that much since it's a huge coincidence (although God could have arranged it that way), and it would add yet another reincarnation to the story, which further deviates from Catholicism. And I can't really think of an important role for her. She'd be worse than useless if I simply shoehorn her into the story without a real purpose of her own.
Connor does have a girlfriend early in book two, but Connor keeps her around primarily to annoy Satan (since Connor is supposed to be Christ). Made worse by the fact that she's into goth, with an outrageous look. And they have sex regularly. And Connor is intentionally not very discreet about her. Tsk. Tsk. I don't see turning Ms. Goth into an important character since one of her purposes is for De Rosa to send her away, to be replaced later by someone even worse.
I do have Dr. Lombardi, who headed the Papal Research team in book one, who I could bring back and increase her importance. In the next draft of book one, I can leave her as is but make her the head of the demon-hunting team at the end, replacing De Rosa, after his true identity is revealed. Still nowhere near as important as Campagna.
Also, I have yet to think of an important role for Father Romano.
And I definitely have to bring Connor's biblical companion into the story. She was present back then and equally responsible for the disaster that occurred. To avoid another reincarnation, I could bring her into the story in her "glorified" body, which (some?) Christians believe we'll all get.
Returning characters include:
Connor
Maria Campana
Satan/De Rosa
Father (Bishop) Romano (exact role is TBD)
Pope-in-Exile Nnamani
Antonio the ghost (his exact role is TBD)
Moses & Elijah (their exact roles are TBD)
Dr. Lombardi
EDIT: One possibility is that the female biblical figure is already on Earth in book one. In fact, she could be in her glorified form as Dr. Lombardi, which would have been what she's looked like thousands of years ago. I would then either keep Connor from seeing/encountering her so he doesn't recognize her from the past, or I could rely on the fact that Connor's soul still hasn't fully awakened.
alexwatson too.
Ditto for Marry09
I might be wrong, but I imagine that most people would say - Satan has sex with a woman through a zombie man, therefore evilness is passed to the kid. Especially, if the kid is the AC. Are you over thinking this? The spiritual side of Connor should be powerful to manipulate the physical world.
I should have my head examined. Having spent at least 1.5 pages of this thread arguing why DNA -based powers are the best solution for Connor, I keep thinking about George's suggested alternative above.
What if I simply ignore the fact that there is no physical element (DNA) to explain Connor's powers but rely instead on the heinousness of his conception to transfer some of Satan's evil and powers spiritually? The evil act is Satan using a dead body to rape Campagna, thereby making Connor at least spiritually descended from Satan, even though Connor contains no actual demon from his conception.
Advantages:
- Connor is more demon like, rather than a human with modified DNA for his powers
- Connor truly inherits something from Satan, making Connor at least partially evil, which is a part of his nature he then needs to overcome as well
- Connor would have as part of his corrupted nature the "element" that makes him the Antichrist (a human with a partially evil spirit)
Issues:
- this is a handwavy solution that makes no effort to explain how some of Satan's evil can pass from Satan through Campana into Connor
- what does it mean for a human to be spiritually descended from Satan? Does this mean Connor's spirit somehow becomes demonic, even though Connor is no actual demon; his DNA is human as should be his spirit
- if I consider the heinousness of the act something that corrupts Connor's spirit in the womb, I then have to do one of the following:
1) I have to explain the difference between a soul and a human spirit; Satan corrupts Connor's spirit but not his soul, two concepts that many Christians, as far as I can tell, generally don't distinguish; most times only the soul is mentioned, although technically we have both, at least in Catholicism; or,
2) I can tie the corruption to Connor's soul and not even mention his spirit; the tricky part of this approach is that Connor's soul is already serving multiple purposes in the story; it's actually the soul of an ancient being, the soul is reshaped into two distinct personalities (Connor vs the biblical character) during the course of the story, it's what allows Satan to transfer his powers to Connor via the soul, and Connor's powers are then driven entirely by his soul.
- Problem is, how does the transfer of evil affect the biblical figure who shares his soul with Connor? This same question applies even if I place the evil into Connor's spirit rather than into his soul; also, is Connor's spirit the same as the biblical figure's spirit?
- there would be no ability by Satan to manipulate Connor's DNA to imprint into Connor a strong bond/dependence upon Satan.
Just the process of writing this up shows how many issues/questions have to be addressed. Trying to distinguish soul from spirit is a complexity I prefer not to add to the story. And having the soul serve all of the aforementioned purposes is "purpose overload" in my opinion.
I think I'm still much better off with a DNA based solution. It's far less complex. George, in case you're wondering if all of the above issues really need answers, they do since many of those issues will definitely arise in the story I have planned. And the answers have to make sense and be consistent with answers to other issues. To me, the complexity outweighs the advantages.
I might be wrong, but I imagine that most people would say - Satan has sex with a woman through a zombie man, therefore evilness is passed to the kid. Especially, if the kid is the AC. Are you over thinking this? The spiritual side of Connor should be powerful to manipulate the physical world.
And of course! This is just brainstorming!
I forgot to answer this. I'm not overthinking this. It was an easy decision and a simple, elegant, and complete solution. I chose human DNA as the way to pass on superpowers to Connor. If I had made it spiritual powers, then how would that have worked (see my previous posts where I discuss other possible options and the challenges with them)?
My way ensures that Connor gets his powers from Satan, is also human, and is not inherently evil. The fact that Satan used his powers to animate a zombie and rape Campagna, inseminating her with zombie DNA, does not in any way explain how evilness could have passed to Connor. Answer: It didn't. He's human, he sins, he's under Satan's powerful influence as a child, but he is not intrinsically evil. Any human in Connor's place would have almost certainly turned evil, but Connor is partially protected by his ancient soul, which has the benefit of having lived in Old Testament times and has a strong sense of right and wrong, even while only just beginning to reawaken.
Since Satan altered the DNA in the zombie sperm, I choose to refer to Connor as part demon and as having inherited his powers from Satan. Technically, he "inherited" nothing from Satan in the way we think of inherited, not even anything demon like. But it's as close as a demon can come in my story to creating a human offspring.
Although there are a number of ways to pick apart my solution as not being biblical, my story is on a different timeline that does not require me to arrive at the same outcome as our version of Revelation. Within my story's universe, it holds together with all the other elements of my universe. And if offers a simple explanation of how all this is possible without handwaving.
This is the best I can come to explaining my reasoning to you, George. If you don't buy it, we'll have to agree to disagree. And there's plenty more to disagree on, including how a soul could have multiple personalities and reincarnation of the ancient biblical figure.
In case anyone is interested, the identity of the biblical figure is given in the final chapter of the first draft. Can you find it? I practically hit the reader over the head with it, although readers won't realize that until they learn Connor is a reincarnated being.
I never said he was free from sin. He sins just by being part of the conspiracy. I said he wasn't inherently evil from birth. He's a human like any other, but with supernatural powers woven into his DNA by Satan, who also wasn't evil from the start. However, Satan's manipulations of Connor's DNA included imprinting Connor with a very powerful (and unnatural) bond toward Satan, which Satan then exploited, trying to mold Connor in Satan's image, at a time when Satan had removed Connor fom his family, who would've given him a loving upbringing with a totally different set of values. Connor has to overcome all that if he's going to destroy Satan, a being he loves because of the imprinting and because Satan was the only person who ever told Connor he loved him.
In the case of Connor and the biblical figure (bf), I think both have agency, although there are clashes. Connor dominates in book one, begins to lose a little control of decisions at the end of book one (failed to smother the pope), continues to lose control as bf awakens throughout book two, a crisis point is reached that probably requires both to settle their differences and work together (details TBD), after which a blended whole can move forward. I had been thinking that each would continue to exist, though, with one or the other yielding control as dictated by the scene/plot, especially when certain unique strengths are called for that only one of them has. Naturally, if there is a switch in the personality in control, I would need to make that obvious to the reader.
In order for them to reach a compromise, I should probably have a scene where they talk to each other directly (via thoughts), although it seems kind of weird at the moment. The other option is to not show it at all and merely have one of the personalities report the agreed upon compromise. I lean toward the former since I think the conversation would be interesting to both read and write. I'll have to write it to see what works best.
Regardless of the exact details, I definitely need to have some form of clash play out since there are two personalities in one soul, where one dominates at the beginning while the other awakens and fights for some level of control.
I don't think readers will side with bf since Connor is the only personality present in book one, and is the only apparent personality throughout most of book two (who looks to be having growing mental health issues, presumed by other characters to be the result of Satan's manipulations of an otherwise decent kid). I probably won't reveal the presence (and identity) of bf until the end of book two. Not sure yet.
Good grief, there is a lot to think through.
joeden89 and Emilea089 are both advertising.
Another fun idea: In book two, Connor should behave increasingly as if he has multiple personality disorder, but doesn't yet know why. He, of course, unknowingly shares the soul within him with the ancient biblical figure, who continues to slowly awaken throughout book two and increasingly attempts to assert control over Connor's body, thoughts, and actions, but Connor's part of that soul strongly resists those attempts, which causes the apparent personality disorder. Connor doesn't know that he is fighting another, awakening part of his own soul. This will come to a head near the end of book two, when both personalities are fully awake and aware of each other. The only way they can keep going is to figure out how to live with each other. They definitely influence each other, though, since they are not really two beings: they share a body, a brain, a soul, and various elements of a personality that is not truly two separate entities. That's the reason the awakening biblical figure was able to prevent Connor from smothering the pope. That figure will be revealed at the end of the book.
If I'm not mistaken, Christians believe that humans are driven by their souls, which remains when the body dies. But what about multiple personalities, especially ones who don't even know other personalities exist within them? Does the soul have multiple personalities as well, like Connor? My answer as far as the story is concerned is: yes.
Have you ever had so many plot ideas & details flying at you that you don't even have time to organize your notes as you type them up?
I started a Notes file recently for books 2 & 3 of Connor and a few related ideas for book 1 (since books 2 & 3 definitely affect what I had planned for the next draft of book 1). I was too busy with real life to keep it organized, so every time over the past two weeks that I had a new idea, I simply tacked it on to the end of the file before I could forget the details, which happens all too often. Seventeen single-spaced pages and counting, where quite a few paragraphs are each a crushed version of a scene, dialogue and all. There are even multiple versions of some scenes sprinkled throughout the rest of the notes. The fun part comes soon, when I have to organize it all into spreadsheets. Ugh.
Since the above is likely to keep happening (i.e., ideas for one book affecting the other two), I'm thinking of writing the first draft of books 2 & 3 as novellas, which is sure to bring other ideas to mind for each of the other books, including an eventual third (final?) draft of book 1. The result of this will mean I won't finish book 1 for many more years than I had hoped, but in between I get to write fresh material (first draft) for the other books, which should keep things more interesting.
In the meantime, Joseph & Apollo are griping that I'm not working hard enough to finish cleaning up the first act of Archangel Syndrome, at which point I intend to shelve it again and jump back to Connor, hopefully by the start of summer (2 more surgeries and two sets of income taxes may screw up my schedule).
Cool. My first ranking against other competing fan fiction stories (on Wattpad). My Dune - Into the Worm is currently sitting at 89 out of 501 Dune fan stories. Naturally, it's because of the release of Dune 2. I know I had posted this piece elsewhere, where I could see the number of readers per day and what countries they're from.
Getting rid of the potion-concept and having her simply shoot her enemies. So simple. Solved so much.
It's also classic Kdot. Reminds me of that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the Arab blocking Indy's path draws his sword and begins to show off with it, trying to intimidate Indy. At which point Indy simply draws his gun and shoots him. Not only a simple solution, but a funny one too.
I have no problem with Satan having spiritual powers. After all, he is a spirit. But I needed an explanation for how Connor came to be and where he got his power from. If Connor could have "inherited" powers from Satan (much like I inherited my hair color from my parents), how would that have happened? Is there an ability to transfer power from a spirit into a human? And how does one get it from spirit to human? Is it sufficient for Satan to simply think it, and therefore it happens (not believable IMO)? Or is there such a thing as "spiritual" DNA? If so, how do you get it from Satan into Campagna and down to Connor?
If not spiritual DNA, how else might Connor get his powers? Some form of transfer of part of Satan's corrupted spirit into Connor's spirit after birth? If I were to use the latter, then there would actually be true evil in Connor's spirit. That would break the story since the premise is that Connor is not evil. He has free will and the ability to turn away from Satan. Connor just needs to have his eyes opened by people who care about him (his family) that Satan is a manipulative SOB who never actually loved Connor, despite what he told Connor throughout his childhood.
I decided for my story, there is no direct transfer of part of Satan's spirit into Connor's since that makes the kid inherently evil. There is also no spiritual DNA. If you prefer some "form" of DNA for the transfer, you might as well accomplish it through human DNA, modified by Satan in De Rosa's sperm. It's much easier to explain without trying to reinvent the wheel to create spiritual DNA. Also, regular DNA enables an additional element about the relationship between Satan and Connor, namely that some of the DNA manipulation Satan made was intended to create a powerful but fake bond through natural imprinting between Connor and Satan. That bond is something Connor will struggle with until the very end of book three, when he has to decide who to kill: Satan or Jesus.
Ultimately, this is all made-up cacas anyway, so I might as well use a simple solution that doesn't break the story.
Sin, yes. But not inherently evil from the start (neither Satan nor Connor nor the pre-zombie DeRosa).
De Rosa was a human being. In the first draft, all Satan needed to create zombie-De Rosa was his DNA, so the original DNA source could still be alive. In the next draft, it's a little more sensible. Satan (and the demons helping him) enter the body of a dead man and make it seem that he's alive. I'm fact, I could make it so that it always requires multiple demons to animate a dead man. That would explain how they do it (ie one demon can't by itself).
Since Connor is not inherently evil and Satan does not provide any satanic DNA (there's no such thing), the best Satan can do is manipulate Connor's genes (inherited from the zombie at conception) to give him his superpowers. Granted, there are genes that make humans do all kinds of evil things (eg murderous psychopath), but that makes those humans too unpredictable for Satan. One thing Satan could definitely change through DNA is the way that some animals attach themselves on to another animal as their perceived parent. That's how he could make Connor love him, virtually unconditionally.
I didn't want to go down the route of Connor's powers being spiritual because I consider that a cop out from a storyteller's perspective (eg Connor needs powers, so Satan "somehow" passed on his spiritual powers, but we can't explain how. Yuck.). I think a DNA-based solution is closer to something we can understand and relate to. For example, think about all the powers that other animals have that we don't (gorilla strength, incredible speed, ability to breathe under water, ability to fly, ability to use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation, etc.). Is it such a stretch then to imagine Connor could draw lightning from the sky? Just carry a lot of metal in a thunderstorm, and you can do it too.
The Bible says that Satan gave the Antichrist his power, throne, and authority (some wording like that), but Satan would never share power with someone he didn't trust absolutely, hence for me, it had to be a son. That made it obvious that Connor's powers should come from his genes.
Also, remember Connor is actually more powerful than Satan (although Satan doesn't know that yet) since Satan has only spiritual powers, whereas Connor is a form of hybrid with superhuman DNA. So, I'm free to decide that Connor is stronger.
I'm beginning to ramble, so I'll stop there.
