Help! Need Ideas! (it's interesting, I promise)

Another "self-indulgent" thread of mine. You don't have to read if you don't wanna.

In the Short Stories forum, I started improvising on a novel called Doomsday By Design. But, after some sketches and brainstorms, I decided to make this into a SHTF manga. Some of you know, I've tried this before, but it didn't entirely "take off."

But I'm really excited about this one, because I FINALLY got the main characters figured out! That was one of my biggest problems before.

Lead character; Sandra. A punk-goth girl, age 18, who has a particularly bad attitude. She's the angry delinquent of school, the one who's known for violent outbursts, arguments, and direct disregard for authority. Sandra is very conspiracy-obsessed, spends all her time on conspiracy forums (betcha can't guess where I got that idea) and writes her school assignments around the "truth" rather than what the school's text books guide her to write. She has somewhat of a scarred past, and she is known to be very cold and uncaring, although beneath the surface, she's quite the opposite.

Adrian; Sandra's doomsday prepping uncle. Adrian is an eccentric, but loving uncle, who serves as Sandra's guardian, and he sees her as a daughter. He often tries to educate her about prepping and doomsday possibilities, but she rejects him. For some reason, she gets very annoyed and downright angry with him on a constant basis, despite his caring nature towards her.

Silvius; One of the boys in Sandra's "special" class (she's in a satellite class for people with emotional and/or mental problems). Silvius is a rather mysterious individual, who often stares into space, and who always seems rather calm, and relatively happy. He always wears a suit, preferring to look formal rather than informal, and he is very kind, and also mildly eccentric. He often expresses deep philosophical views, and has a reputation for "over-thinking" life, even to the smallest details. His mind is wired quite differently from that of a normal person. Sandra is a close companion of his, because they seem to share many philosophical and logical views.

Alan; The introverted genius. Alan has a small form of autism, but he is extremely intelligent, with an IQ of 177. He is a relatively small person, with neat hair and glasses, and he isn't exactly "social." Though he is a brilliant kid with perfect grades, he gets bullied on a regular basis. Despite this, he still manages to act as though he's "above" everyone else. Though his uppedy attitude provokes Sandra occasionally, she finds herself rather protective of him when he's in a tight situation. She even goes to the length of purchasing his breakfast every day (his father refuses to fill out the free lunch waver, and never gives him money to eat, so Sandra gives him her own breakfast every morning).

Luna; The social girly-girl sweetheart. Luna is an extremely innocent individual, who always tries to do the right thing. But, when she's stressed, she expresses a bit of a whiny nature, which Sandra finds insufferable. Though Sandra never had any personal vendetta against Luna, she sometimes feels extremely agitated with Luna, because the two of them contrast so greatly. Surprisingly, though, they have quite a few emotional viewpoints in common, and though Sandra isn't the type to make friends with other girls, the two of them become close.

Kaan; The bad ass. Kaan isn't your usual character, and he doesn't start out in the Satellite class like the others. Kaan is a grown man, who, when the bombs dropped, was exposed to some serious fire power and radiation. Now, his body is scarred and burned so badly that he looks like a decomposing corpse. It's even possible to see bits and pieces of his bones (he's comparable to a goul, from the Fallout games). He rarely shows emotion, though he carries a good deal of it, and he travels alone with his shotgun... until Sandra comes across him, and he becomes her body guard.

Shadow; The faithful, protective minion. Shadow is Kaan's dog, who is half wolf, half lab. He's a beautiful black dog, and he's very smart, and unbelievably loyal. He becomes very close to everyone in the group.

James; The curious child. James is a five year old that Sandra finds along the way, and, with his father dead (he doesn't know his father is dead, but Sandra watched him die), Sandra decides to adopt him into her care. James is a sweetheart, and his loyalty is comparable to Shadow's. Still, he sometimes shows a deep interest in violence, and sometimes punches his comrades for no reason. He very much desires to become stronger. He begins to look at Sandra as an older sister.


There are going to be other "later" main characters, but these are the ones who begin the story, and who the story is based upon.

I know what some of you may think, it's a story told many times before... but please don't bring up that argument. This is one of my favorite story lines, and I intend to follow through on it. I want to give these misfit characters many emotional adventures, huge plot lines, drop them in curious situations that sometimes contrast with their morals and personalities, and make them grow. They will all grow into a family.

The reason for this thread is to ask many ATSers, who have probrably thought out doomsday scenarios before, for story line ideas for such a world. I have a few episodes clearly planned out, but I'd like to hear suggestions for some more. I am open to almost anything.

I even considered letting Alex Jones guest star in it somewhere. Since I learned to draw him in anime form, I really wanna use it

Basically, the story line is this;

Sandra moved to this remote town with her uncle two years ago, and, for the first time ever, she's made friends at her school. The other three students in the Satellite class. The third world war breaks out in the middle of the school day, and the four of them escape, hearing the bombs drop in the distance. When Sandra takes everyone to her home, and leads them into her uncle's bomb shelter, her uncle Adrian is nowhere in sight.

After spending a day or two in the bunker, Sandra decides to leave on her own, in order to search for her uncle. When her friends awaken, they leave to follow her. When she's out on her own, that's when she meets Kaan, James, and Shadow. The seven of them become a huge group, and they travel the under-attack America, in search of Adrian.

It's a fresh-fallout scenario, with mass panic, bombs destroying chunks of the USA, and survivalist instincts.

I need ideas for some of the adventures and problems they will go through.

I'm seriously brainstorming, and this story is starting to look amazing to me

Thanks for reading, if you read the whole thing. That's all for my self-indulgent thread of the week.

Show me whatcha got ATS!

EDIT; This is a rough sketch of the charatcers (It's only a sketch, real inked drawings of them will be much more impressive).

reply to post by XxNightAngelusxX


Sounds interesting...kinda like the Stephen king books I enjoy reading!

I mean I don't know if I have any ideas, I just read this all the way through. I like your character base, and set up for the story.

Good luck to you my friend! And if I do get an idea I will definitely throw it your way, that would be a joy for me , for someone to use an idea of mine in their story.

Peace and love
-nat

Sounds like this is gonna get interesting!. Well you could put in when they go to stock up food supplies outside, and the harrowing site of americans fighting each other for scraps of food, And the chaotic scenes of brother v brother

Thank ya for the responses

This definitely will have some "humanity morale" problems.

The first line of the story is Sandra thinking, "What is humanity?" Then she explains her views on humanity, and how society has become degenerated, spoiled and immoral.

All throughout the story, when you see people, friends, family, and loved ones all turn on one another, people snapping, those who you never thought to be violent killing someone, she again thinks; What is humanity?

In the story, Sandra and the others constantly come face to face with humanity at its worst. One of the biggest quest-questions of the story is this; What is humanity at its worst?

reply to post by XxNightAngelusxX


Nice, sounds really interesting my friend!

Love the sketches of the characters! You draw so lovely!
-nat

Originally posted by natalia
reply to post by XxNightAngelusxX

 

Nice, sounds really interesting my friend!

Love the sketches of the characters! You draw so lovely!
-nat

Thank you

Really people? No more ideas? Come oooon!

I figured people would be really creative with pondering on a doomsday scenario...

Guess not :/