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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: Nickeris86 on August 17, 2012, 08:28:52 AM
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To put it simply i want to write a short story in a H.P. Lovecraft type style based in the city of Seoul, South Korea. I am currently living in the city so writing about it is not an issue but I have no idea where to put the damn monsters.
I know how i want them to look. I know what kind of nasty things they do to people. I have them pretty much fleshed out.
And I don't have a damn place to put the buggers.
Seoul is the second largest city in the world next to Tokyo but as far as i know there is nothing like Undertown here. There are the subway tunnels but they are all pretty new and well maintained. The sewer system is also very modern. There are tunnels, mostly dug by people fleeing North Korea, but they are found quickly and either sealed or collapsed quickly.
The problem is putting underground system that normal people couldn't find easily but could still access quickly within the city if they knew where it was. And as far as i know Korea is very efficient in keeping track of their underground in Seoul.
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under briges?
hid them in abanded buildings
or big companies could be controled by them
grave yards
any of those help?
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Does Google Maps have reasonable coverage of Seoul ?
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Seoul doesn't really have abandoned buildings. In Korea when someplace goes under the rip it down and rebuild it in a matter of weeks, they are very officiant in that way but things have a tendency not to last very long. I am also trying to avoid water as much as i can for this story so as not to rip off Deepones so bridges don't work.
Google maps does but not of the underground. Due to the strife between North and South. You really don't want to be labled a North Korean sympathizer here.
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A soju brewery.
The presence of ancient evil would explain a great deal regarding what that stuff's done to me.
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Seoul doesn't really have abandoned buildings. In Korea when someplace goes under the rip it down and rebuild it in a matter of weeks, they are very officiant in that way but things have a tendency not to last very long. I am also trying to avoid water as much as i can for this story so as not to rip off Deepones so bridges don't work.
Would it work with the kind of thing you were doing to do something like a pocket dimension ? A perfectly normal apartment building with one extra door somewhere that leads into a space that's not actually on the real-world map, and can be as big and complex as you like ? That's an idea that would lend itself to Lovecraftian creepy, I think.
Google maps does but not of the underground. Due to the strife between North and South. You really don't want to be labled a North Korean sympathizer here.
Sorry, I'd not realised you were local and didn't mean to sound like I was suggesting dangerous things.
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Eh, ah, too bad water is out; that would have been my first suggestion.
Question: do your Abominations have a "life"-cycle that would have allowed them to exist in rural settings?
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Put them in hidden water ways right under the international airport. That way if they break out you could have scenes of mass panic as tourists and air port workers fled the area.
ahhahahah
The Deposed King
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Oh, and have you seen The Host ?
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You can make something up too, or just make MORE out of something that is already there.
A quick search of historical sites found a few possibilities. I read an article about how modern the city is, but someone was quoted saying that every time they start a new project they dig up something that would be considered artifacts or historically important.
Any of the older temples or fortresses have potential.
I also found this:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/kpa-tunnels.htm
You might be able to expand on that somehow. Maybe the tunnels made it to Seoul and they gave a passage to the surface for things that would have otherwise been buried?
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Oh, and have you seen The Host ?
Is that that odd film about the water monster and the kiosk owner and the US base, that had less continuity than Buckaroo Banzai?
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Is that that odd film about the water monster and the kiosk owner and the US base, that had less continuity than Buckaroo Banzai?
That's the one. I rather liked it.
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A soju brewery.
The presence of ancient evil would explain a great deal regarding what that stuff's done to me.
Lol yes that stuff is rather nasty, not as bad as Machaly though.
Would it work with the kind of thing you were doing to do something like a pocket dimension ? A perfectly normal apartment building with one extra door somewhere that leads into a space that's not actually on the real-world map, and can be as big and complex as you like ? That's an idea that would lend itself to Lovecraftian creepy, I think.
Sorry, I'd not realised you were local and didn't mean to sound like I was suggesting dangerous things.
I have thought of using pocket dimensions later in the story as part of the characters descent into madness. The first encounter i wanted to be underground. Though a pocket dimension in the subway tunnels could work. I am also only a local as long as my contract is going. I am from America but I teach English to kids here.
Eh, ah, too bad water is out; that would have been my first suggestion.
Question: do your Abominations have a "life"-cycle that would have allowed them to exist in rural settings?
Rural setting is out because i want the terror to being living in the city so close that their is not escape. Rural settings work but not for what i have planned.
You can make something up too, or just make MORE out of something that is already there.
A quick search of historical sites found a few possibilities. I read an article about how modern the city is, but someone was quoted saying that every time they start a new project they dig up something that would be considered artifacts or historically important.
Any of the older temples or fortresses have potential.
I also found this:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/kpa-tunnels.htm
You might be able to expand on that somehow. Maybe the tunnels made it to Seoul and they gave a passage to the surface for things that would have otherwise been buried?
Yeah i had heard of these and may use them. Thanks for the article will help a lot.
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To put it simply i want to write a short story in a H.P. Lovecraft type style based in the city of Seoul, South Korea. I am currently living in the city so writing about it is not an issue but I have no idea where to put the damn monsters.
I know how i want them to look. I know what kind of nasty things they do to people. I have them pretty much fleshed out.
And I don't have a damn place to put the buggers.
Seoul is the second largest city in the world next to Tokyo but as far as i know there is nothing like Undertown here. There are the subway tunnels but they are all pretty new and well maintained. The sewer system is also very modern. There are tunnels, mostly dug by people fleeing North Korea, but they are found quickly and either sealed or collapsed quickly.
The problem is putting underground system that normal people couldn't find easily but could still access quickly within the city if they knew where it was. And as far as i know Korea is very efficient in keeping track of their underground in Seoul.
This right here. I'm not sure about Seoul exactly, but even here around Cincinnati it is extremely common for there to be tunnels simply forgotten or "broken-down/decayed". Almost every city in the world is capable of having an entire underground world that normal folks just wouldn't know about. Heck, in Vegas there are literally hundreds of people living in these types of places.
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Considering that Seoul is pretty darn ancient, there should be ruins under ruins under ruins to work with. Old construction, old cellars and suchlike with things like apartment buildings built over them...
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Considering that Seoul is pretty darn ancient, there should be ruins under ruins under ruins to work with. Old construction, old cellars and suchlike with things like apartment buildings built over them...
My thoughts exactly. But even if there somehow isn't? I couldn't see many people knowing enough about it to call you out on it. Fiction is fiction, even if it has some connections to reality.
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Depending on your theme and tastes it's fun finding obscure antiquities nobody thought mattered to tie into your Big Bad. Something that brings up a faint recollection of some old historical quirk of trivia, and then ratchets it up into the Oh Shit! bell.
Did some wikipeeking, and saw that Seoul is 2,000 years old. A lot of material to work with.
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I haven't been to Soul since the late sixties but when I was there they had large flood control canals like L.A.
At the time there were shanty towns of wood and cardboard all along it in some areas. Some of the lines feeding the canal where pretty big. Either would serve as a hiding place during the day. Of course it would depend on the time period of the story and prosperity of the area being used.
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My thoughts exactly. But even if there somehow isn't? I couldn't see many people knowing enough about it to call you out on it.
Heh. I can totally see a full third of northern Virginia screaming 'You stupid cretin - Seoul was all wooden farmhouses until the war and then it got flattened flatter than Hiroshima and burnt crispier than Dresden just to eliminate enemy hidey holes'. If they believed it they'd do it, whatever the facts might be.
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What about the possibility of A forgotten bomb shelter that connects with a pocket dimension?
Craig
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Heh. I can totally see a full third of northern Virginia screaming 'You stupid cretin - Seoul was all wooden farmhouses until the war and then it got flattened flatter than Hiroshima and burnt crispier than Dresden just to eliminate enemy hidey holes'. If they believed it they'd do it, whatever the facts might be.
yeah, what the good folks of rec.arts.sf.composition used to call the Tiffany problem. (Tiffany is actually a name we have documented evidence of from the 14th century, but just because that's real doesn't make it credible.)
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Okay I have the little bastards nailed down to a location and even how they can move around the city without causing to much suspicion.
Now I have another question for you. I want to throw in a twist at the climax of the story where the big bad that all the lesser bads worship as a dark god actually isn't malevolent at all but has been forced into this role due to circumstances that it is not at all pleased with. This being is still mind shatteringly powerful and beyond human comprehension that even being in the same general area of it can drive you mad. The nightmare fuel it inspires in people that it comes in contact with are its cries for help. However, because it is what it is and the circumstances that led it to its current position it can't really be gentle about it.
However its true intentions and motivations are left to mystery.
I know it contrasts with the general concept of Cosmic Horror but there is not happy ending in this story, or at least its a very dark grey ending. I took my inspiration from the fact that angels, the messengers/warriors of the Almighty are freaking terrifying to behold. Whether the creature in my story is an angel or something else is up to the reader in the end.
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I'd read it and probably enjoy the ending. Life isn't sun-shine and rainbows and art imitates life. I want to read about things that make me think, wonder, and maybe even scare me a little. Write the ending you want and let the readers react accordingly.
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Okay I have the little bastards nailed down to a location and even how they can move around the city without causing to much suspicion.
Now I have another question for you. I want to throw in a twist at the climax of the story where the big bad that all the lesser bads worship as a dark god actually isn't malevolent at all but has been forced into this role due to circumstances that it is not at all pleased with. This being is still mind shatteringly powerful and beyond human comprehension that even being in the same general area of it can drive you mad. The nightmare fuel it inspires in people that it comes in contact with are its cries for help. However, because it is what it is and the circumstances that led it to its current position it can't really be gentle about it.
However its true intentions and motivations are left to mystery.
I know it contrasts with the general concept of Cosmic Horror but there is not happy ending in this story, or at least its a very dark grey ending. I took my inspiration from the fact that angels, the messengers/warriors of the Almighty are freaking terrifying to behold. Whether the creature in my story is an angel or something else is up to the reader in the end.
I like the idea so much I've half been using it for half a year now. Only half thankfully, its a great idea.
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Okay I have the little bastards nailed down to a location and even how they can move around the city without causing to much suspicion.
OK, i know you said you had this, but I had already come up with a suggestion, so maybe you'll find some other use for it: if they are as efficient as you say about tearing down older construction and putting up new within weeks, it would stand to reason that they are generating a lot of construction waste, which has to go somewhere. Maybe there is a landfill somewhere with all this stuff that baddies set up shop in, proping up chunks of wall and scrounging old piping, or digging out modest tunnels throughout as they excavate for useful cast-off.
Now I have another question for you. I want to throw in a twist at the climax of the story where the big bad that all the lesser bads worship as a dark god actually isn't malevolent at all but has been forced into this role due to circumstances that it is not at all pleased with. This being is still mind shatteringly powerful and beyond human comprehension that even being in the same general area of it can drive you mad. The nightmare fuel it inspires in people that it comes in contact with are its cries for help. However, because it is what it is and the circumstances that led it to its current position it can't really be gentle about it.
However its true intentions and motivations are left to mystery.
I know it contrasts with the general concept of Cosmic Horror but there is not happy ending in this story, or at least its a very dark grey ending. I took my inspiration from the fact that angels, the messengers/warriors of the Almighty are freaking terrifying to behold. Whether the creature in my story is an angel or something else is up to the reader in the end.
That sounds awesome but Im not seeing your question. I have a few though: How did such a powerful being get forced into said role? Ancient Mystical Binding spell? Did he make a bargain and get the shaft? Is there some even more Uber entity out there antagonizing him? Did humanities growth/presence inadvertently screw something up and somehow trap him? If he is shouting for help, how will such relatively tiny and fragile creatures be able to help him?
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Now I have another question for you. I want to throw in a twist at the climax of the story where the big bad that all the lesser bads worship as a dark god actually isn't malevolent at all but has been forced into this role due to circumstances that it is not at all pleased with. This being is still mind shatteringly powerful and beyond human comprehension that even being in the same general area of it can drive you mad. The nightmare fuel it inspires in people that it comes in contact with are its cries for help. However, because it is what it is and the circumstances that led it to its current position it can't really be gentle about it.
However its true intentions and motivations are left to mystery.
Excellent...but the implication here is that, in spite of it's awesome power, 'circumstances' can bring this being to violate it's own wants or desires.
IMO You almost have to write some back story here for yourself only, just to nail down some bounds and limits of what your super-critter can do. EDIT: I see Quantus posted some of the same concerns.
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Well the question was answered without me asking it.
The question was does a twist ending like the suspected big bad turning out not to be really evil have warrant within a published work calling itself Lovecraftian?
OK, i know you said you had this, but I had already come up with a suggestion, so maybe you'll find some other use for it: if they are as efficient as you say about tearing down older construction and putting up new within weeks, it would stand to reason that they are generating a lot of construction waste, which has to go somewhere. Maybe there is a landfill somewhere with all this stuff that baddies set up shop in, proping up chunks of wall and scrounging old piping, or digging out modest tunnels throughout as they excavate for useful cast-off.
Well Korean law has it set up where most everything is recycled in some way. there are a few places where there are mounds of garbage and waste, but they are realtivly small in comparison to the size of the city. I probably will use them in some context but not as the main hiding place. Possibly foraging grounds for food or followers.
That sounds awesome but Im not seeing your question. I have a few though: How did such a powerful being get forced into said role? Ancient Mystical Binding spell? Did he make a bargain and get the shaft? Is there some even more Uber entity out there antagonizing him? Did humanities growth/presence inadvertently screw something up and somehow trap him? If he is shouting for help, how will such relatively tiny and fragile creatures be able to help him?
I a little torn on how it got stuck where it is. I have two ideas. The most logical would be that it was already imprisoned here centuries ago and humanity discovered it and its jailors (the lesser abominations). They were driven mad by the revelation of finding this place and mistook it for a fallen god and the jailors saw no reason to dissuade them and in fact played along in order to spread corruption. What actually imprisoned it would be left to mystery which should inspire fear given how strong this thing is and there is something out there that bitch slapped it into a jail cell. The other is that the creature was imprisoned by the mortals who now worship it, though most of them are unaware of this fact. They managed this because the creature has something that already partially binds it to the world, something it has to protect. The cultists used this to force it into a binding.
In either case the creature does have something that it is protecting that is key to the story.
As for back story, o_O, the creature is very powerful but it also has a job and can only act within the confines of performing that task. It is otherworldly but is cut of from that other place from which it spawned. Thus its choices in asking for help are very very limited to what is around it. Humans or animals. It is also not the only one of its kind though this will not really come into play much in the story. Most of these others are not imprisoned but many are. I think the city infrastructure could be used as part of their bindings and dive into the conspiratorial cults and secret societies that have influenced the construction of several major cites in the world.
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Well Korean law has it set up where most everything is recycled in some way. there are a few places where there are mounds of garbage and waste, but they are relatively small in comparison to the size of the city. I probably will use them in some context but not as the main hiding place. Possibly foraging grounds for food or followers.
Ah, ok. Here the landfill has a whole separate section for construction waste (bricks, piping, torn lumber, chunks of wall, etc) vs the more traditional piles of bagged garbage.
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If you want to make this totally awesome in the way I see awesome, make the big abomination way beyond the understanding of the lesser ones.
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Do they recycle building materials? If so, you could couple that with the pocket dimensions. The pieces of material that these places are tied to tend to find themselves incorporated together, into new buildings. Perhaps some of the lesser eldritch abomintions can also make themselves look like humans, or they ride humans.
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From my memory of Seoul (what's left of it after the soju), there's a lot of old historical landmarks. You can walk into a temple, and the entire city just seems to disappear. You're suddenly not in one of the largest and most modern cities in the world, but an ancient place with great weight of history behind it. Perhaps one of the historical sites could be useful?
On the other side, there's a huge chunk right in the center of the city carved out for the Yongsan post. I know how the American military can be, how well is that part of the city's underground patrolled?
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I keep mine on the top shelf in a coffee can labelled "Sesame Alfalfa Cookiees".